L  I  E>  RAR.Y 

OF  THE 

UN  IVLRSITY 

Of    ILLINOIS 

9772 

In2 

v.7 

cop.  4 


sa.  hist.  SURVEY 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2012  with  funding  from 

University  of  Illinois  Urbana-Champaign 


http://archive.org/details/washingtoncounty78morr 


INDIANA  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  PUBLICATIONS 

VOL.  7  NO.  8 


WASHINGTON  COUNTY 
GIANTS 


BY 


HARVEY  MORRIS 


GREENFIELD,    IND. 

WILLIAM    MITCHELL    PRINTING    CO. 

1921 


LIEUT.   ISAAC  VAN  BUSKIRK  AND  SERGT.   JOHN  VAN  BUSKIRK 
Company  F,   27th  Indiana. 


CAPT.   DAVID  V.   BUSKIRK 

Company  F,   27th  Indiana  Cavalry. 

Tallest  Man  in  Union  Army. 


CAPT.    PETER    KOPP 

Company   F,    27th   Indiana. 

Killed  at  Antietam. 


INTRODUCTORY 

"One  thing  will  certainly  interest  you — that  it  is  evident, 
from  our  statistics,  that  the  Indiana  men  are  the  tallest  of 
all  natives  of  the  United  States,  and  these  latter  the  tallest 
of  all  civilized  countries."  This  statement  to  Adjutant- 
General  Terrell,  in  a  letter  from  Dr.  B.  A.  Gould,  of  the 
United  States  Sanitary  Commission,  during  the  tabulation 
of  the  measurements  of  Union  soldiers  in  the  Civil  war, 
was  the  original  inspiration  of  this  publication.  Later 
investigations  by  Doctor  Gould  showed  that  the  Union 
soldiers  from  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  averaged  one-third 
of  an  inch  taller  than  the  Indiana  men.  Subsequent  inves- 
tigations by  Doctor  Baxter,  of  the  Provost-Marshal-Gen - 
eral's  office,  added  Kansas,  Minnesota,  Missouri,  California 
and  Nevada  to  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  as  having  taller 
men  than  Indiana;  but  the  total  men  measured  from  these 
seven  states  were  less  than  half  the  number  of  Indiana  men 
measured.  Moreover,  Doctor  Baxter's  research  showed 
that  the  men  from  the  Second  Congressional  District  of 
Indiana  surpassed  in  height,  by  nearly  one-third  of  an  inch, 
the  men  of  any  of  these  seven  states. 

The  district  measurements  were  peculiarly  striking  as 
showing  that  the  men  from  the  Second  were  half-an-inch 
taller  than  those  from  the  next  highest  district  in  Indiana ; 
nine-tenths  of  an  inch  above  the  average  for  the  State; 
and  one  and  one-third  inches  above  the  lowest  district. 
Doctor  Gould's  attention  had  been  especially  drawn  to 
Indiana  by  Company  F,  of  the  Twenty-seventh  Indiana, 
in  which  he  said  there  were  sixty-seven  men  out  of  101  who 
were  recorded  at  six  feet  or  over;  and  which  included  the 

367 


368  Washington  County  Giants 

tallest  man  in  the  Union  army  whose  record  was  complete, 
measuring  82.5  inches  in  his  stocking-feet. 

Recent  inquiry  as  to  the  ancestry  of  Gen.  Thomas  Jack- 
son Rodman,  the  inventor  of  "the  Rodman  gun,"  developed 
the  fact  that  he  was  of  a  family  included  in  what  were 
known  as  "the  Washington  County  Giants,"  in  an  early 
day;  and,  as  Washington  county  was  in  the  Second  District, 
attention  was  turned  to  this  indication  of  an  explanation  of 
the  Civil  war  record.  Mr.  Harvey  Morris,  of  Salem,  kindly 
undertook  to  gather  up  what  information  could  be  had  at 
this  time  as  to  these  colossal  Hoosiers,  their  antecedents, 
and  their  descendants;  and  his  valuable  paper  follows.  To 
it  have  been  appended  the  pertinent  parts  of  the  reports  of 
Doctors  Gould  and  Baxter;  extracts  from  the  history  of 
the  Twenty-seventh  regiment,  and  contemporary  news- 
paper comments  on  Company  F;  an  earlier  article  on 
"Washington  County  Giants,"  by  Warden  W.  Stevens,  to 
which  Mr.  Morris  refers;  a  tabulation  of  measurements  of 
Indiana  forces  in  the  Spanish-American  war,  specially  pre- 
pared for  this  publication;  a  tabulation  of  mean  stature  of 
soldiers  in  the  World  war,  as  thus  far  completed,  furnished 
by  the  surgeon-general's  office;  and  some  biographical 
information  concerning  Capt.  David  V.  Buskirk,  "the  tallest 
man  in  the  Union  army." 

As  will  be  seen  from  the  appendices,  there  has  been  no 
little  discussion  of  the  meaning  of  these  statistics  by  biome- 
tricians,  for  it  is  obvious  that  average  differences  in  stature 
are  not  matters  of  chance,  but  are  produced  by  some  cause. 
The  discussions  show  some  marked  differences  of  opinion, 
which  is  quite  natural;  but  they  leave  the  impression  that 
an  error  has  been  made  in  dismissing  suggested  causes, 
individually,  on  the  ground  that  the  cause  under  discussion 


Washington  County  Giants  369 

would  not  of  itself  explain  all  the  facts.  The  Civil  war 
statistics  show  that  the  drafted  men  of  the  Second  Con- 
gressional District  of  Indiana  not  only  averaged  taller  than 
those  of  any  other  Indiana  district,  but  also  taller  than  the 
average  of  any  other  State  represented  in  the  Union  army. 
Probably  Doctors  Gould  and  Baxter  were  right  in  their 
surmise  that  the  drafted  men  did  not  average  as  tall  as 
the  volunteers.  In  this  case  there  had  been  a  special  selec- 
tion of  tall  men  for  Company  F,  of  the  Twenty-seventh 
regiment  and  it  is  known  that  this  occurred  in  some  other 
States.  Quite  possibly  the  conditions  may  be  due  to  a 
combination  of  causes,  and  all  possible  causes  are  worthy  of 
consideration. 

Heredity  is  presumably  the  chief  influence  on  stature, 
but  it  is  not  a  constant  influence.  One  of  its  manifestations 
in  Indiana  is  the  superior  average  stature  in  the  southern 
part  of  the  State,  which  was  largely  settled  from  the  South. 
As  shown  by  all  the  statistics,  the  people  of  the  southern 
States,  with  the  exceptions  of  Louisiana  and  Florida,  aver- 
age taller  than  the  people  of  the  northern  States.  In 
Indiana  families  there  are  found  the  usual  characteristics 
of  heredity  in  this  respect,  of  deviations  from  the  type  and 
recurrence  to  the  type — or  "throw-backs,"  as  they  are  com- 
monly called.  An  illustration  of  this  is  found  in  the  notes 
on  the  Buskirk  family,  appended,  which  produced  the 
tallest  man  in  the  Union  army. 

Age  is  another  unquestionable  factor  in  comparative 
measurements.  Doctor  Gould  fixes  the  age  of  full  stature 
at  thirty  years;  and  the  consensus  of  opinion  is  that  it  is 
not  less  than  twenty-five  years.  The  average  age  of  sol- 
diers at  enlistment  is  commonly  less  than  that.  In  the 
Civil  war,  of  the  118,254  measurements  given  by  Terrell, 


370  Washington  County  Giants 

75,135  were  under  twenty-five  years.  In  the  Spanish- 
American  war  two-thirds  of  the  Indiana  troops  measured 
were  under  twenty-five.  In  the  World  war  figures,  the 
average  of  muster-out  stature  is  larger  than  that  of  muster- 
in  stature,  as  would  be  expected  in  the  case  of  youthful 
soldiers  under  good  sanitary  conditions.  But  in  this  regard, 
the  averages  for  Indiana  are  exceptions  to  the  rule,  the 
muster-out  stature  being  less.  This  may  possibly  be 
explained  by  the  smaller  number,  and  different  persons 
measured. 

It  seems  clear  that,  on  the  average,  those  who  migrate 
to  new  countries,  or  to  frontiers,  are  taller  than  those  who 
do  not;  although  Doctor  Baxter  dismisses  this  proposition 
with  the  statement:  "It  is  yet  to  be  shown  that  enterprise 
and  ambition  depend  upon  stature,  and  not  on  qualities 
of  the  mind."  But  enterprise  and  ambition  are  not  the  only 
controlling  factors  in  such  movements.  Strength  and  en- 
durance are  fully  as  important,  on  account  of  the  hardship 
of  travel,  and  usually  the  hardship  of  life  after  migration. 
For  example,  before  the  building  of  the  Pacific  railroad  the 
number  of  people  who  went  to  the  Far  West  for  their 
health  was  comparatively  negligible,  but  now  it  is  very 
considerable.  Pioneer  life  in  America  has  never  been  one 
of  ease,  and  therefore  never  attractive  to  the  weak  or 
infirm ;  and  the  statistics  indicate  that  this  process  of  selec- 
tion takes  taller  people,  on  the  average. 

Thus,  the  Civil  war  statistics  show  that  the  natives  of 
New  York  and  New  England  who  enlisted  in  the  West 
were  taller,  at  all  ages,  than  those  who  enlisted  at  home. 
They  show  that  our  foreign  born  soldiers  were  uniformly 
taller  than  the  average  of  their  respective  nationalities  at 
home.     In  the  World  war,  the  natives  of  Alaska,  and  of  the 


Washington  County  Giants  371 

States  nearest  frontier  conditions,  rank  among  the  highest. 
In  fact  the  whole  history  of  the  United  States  supports  this 
view,  for  the  stature  of  Americans  has  been  the  subject  of 
comment  for  more  than  a  century,  although  all  Americans 
were  immigrants  from  Europe,  or  descendants  of  such  im- 
migrants. Quotations  are  unnecessary,  but  a  typical  one 
is  the  following  statement  by  Morris  Birkbeck,  105  years 
ago :  "Nine  out  of  ten  native  Americans  are  tall  and  long- 
limbed,  approaching  or  even  exceeding  six  feet." 

On  the  other  hand,  after  a  region  ceases  to  be  frontier, 
and  travel  becomes  comfortable,  immigration  loses  this 
characteristic.  This  is  strikingly  illustrated  by  the  small 
stature  of  the  natives  of  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  who 
served  in  the  Indiana  forces  in  the  Spanish-American  war; 
while  the  pioneer  immigrants  to  Indiana  from  those  States 
were  notoriously  of  large  stature.  It  is  probable  that  when 
the  measurements  of  the  World  war  are  fully  tabulated, 
they  will  furnish  very  decisive  evidence  on  this  point. 

In  fact  there  is  a  wide  field  for  future  investigation,  both 
as  to  causes  of  stature  and  the  period  of  full  growth;  and 
there  are  many  existing  collections  of  measurements  that 
would  throw  light  on  both,  if  they  were  tabulated.  For 
example,  the  Bertillon  measurements  of  criminals,  which 
have  been  so  widely  kept  in  the  United  States  for  a  number 
of  years,  and  which  have  been  tabulated  as  to  nearly  every- 
thing but  stature,  would  no  doubt  add  largely  to  the  sum  of 
our  information;  and  this  would  be  an  excellent  field  for 
college  and  university  work  by  students  of  biology. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  climate,  soil  and  food  have 
influences  on  both  animal  and  vegetable  life.  The  thesis 
of  Prof.  Frederic  Starr  that  the  development  of  the  white 
race  in  America  has  been  steadily  in  the  direction  of  the 


372  Washington  County  Giants 

characteristics  of  the  American  Indian  has  very  tangible 
foundation.  The  occurrence  of  great  stature  in  special 
localities  is  probably  due,  in  part  at  least,  to  these 
influences,  though  it  is  not  to  be  traced  easily.  One  fact 
that  might  have  some  effect  in  this  line  is  unquestionable, 
and  that  is  that  the  people  of  the  Central  West  are  not 
now  confined  to  a  diet  of  the  products  of  that  region  to  any 
such  extent  as  they  were  in  the  earlier  period. 

The  effect  of  in-door  employment  in  checking  growth  has 
long  been  recognized  in  Europe,  and  it  is  presumably  begin- 
ning to  show  in  this  country.  The  use  of  alcoholic  liquors 
in  the  period  of  growth  is  generally  conceded  to  retard  it; 
but  this  would  presumably  have  no  material  effect  in  com- 
parative measurements  in  the  United  States.  There  may, 
of  course,  be  effective  causes  that  have  not  been  suggested 
in  the  discussion  of  the  subject  thus  far. 

It  is  notable  that  there  has  been  little  consideration  of 
pre-natal  influences;  and  yet  it  seems  obvious  that  the 
influences  that  have  been  mentioned  could  not  account  for 
differences  in  a  single  family,  with  common  parentage,  and 
no  apparent  change  in  external  conditions.  In  such  cases 
it  would  seem  necessary  that  the  explanation  must  be  found 
in  pre-natal  influences  of  some  kind.  In  this  connection 
it  is  of  interest  that  recent  experiments  of  Doctor  Stocker, 
at  Woods  Hole,  are  said  to*  show  that  the  presence  of 
iodine,  at  certain  stages  of  embryonic  development,  pro- 
motes stature;  and  even  tends  to  produce  the  "long  skull" 
as  distinguished  from  the  "round  skull."  It  is  well  known 
that  iodine  is  an  active  thyroid  stimulant;  and  it  may  be 
that  the  presence  of  this,  or  some  other  chemical,  may  be 
found  a  material  factor.  At  any  rate  there  are  both  abun- 
dance and  variety  of  chemicals  in  the  waters  of  the  Second 
Congressional  District  of  Indiana.  J.  P.  Dunn. 


WASHINGTON  COUNTY  GIANTS 

By  Harvey  Morris 

In  the  early  years  of  the  last  century,  while  Indiana 
was  engaged  in  constructing  a  system  of  Internal  Improve- 
ments, a  large  gang  of  men  were  employed  on  some  such 
work  a  short  distance  from  New  Albany,  and  among  them 
was  one  from  Washington  county  by  the  name  of  Madison 
Short.  He  was  a  giant  in  size  and  a  Goliath  in  strength  and 
had  bested  all  of  the  other  men  on  the  works,  both  in  trials 
and  strength  and  in  the  rough  and  tumble  fights  so  common 
at  that  time. 

One  day,  after  having  come  out  victor  in  some  peculiarly 
strenuous  contest,  the  foreman  of  the  gang  spoke  to  him 
about  his  success;  to  which  he  is  said  to  have  answered: 
"O  that  is  nothing.  Up  in  Washington  county  where  I  live 
there  is  a  whole  race  of  giants,  and  I  being  the  runt,  and 
not  able  to  hold  my  own  with  the  common  run  of  men.  had 
to  come  down  here  where  there  are  just  common  folks." 
I  will  again  refer  to  Short  in  this  article,  and  will  briefly 
notice  some  of  this  race  of  giants  that  he  referred  to,  and 
will  show  that  the  race  has  not  died  out  with  the  passing 
of  time  and  the  strenuous  conditions  of  life  that  existed  in 
that  day.  And  in  this  account,  I  shall  divide  them  into 
three  classes,  viz :  Those  who  were  early  settlers  or  pio- 
neers, and  so  far  as  possible,  give  the  States  from  which 
they  came;  the  descendants  of  these  pioneers;  and  our  own 
day  giants.     For  they  still  exist. 

We,  no  doubt,  shall  differ  in  our  opinions  as  to  where 
the  line  dividing  the  ordinary  man  and  the  giant  should  be 
drawn,  but  in  this  case,  all  of  the  men  named,  with  but 

373 


374  Washington  County  Giants 

very  few  exceptions,  will  be  well  over  six  feet,  and  the 
exceptions  will  be  cases  where  they  possessed  unusual 
strength,  and  will  be  noted. 

Stevens,  in  his  History  of  Washington  County,  mentions 
many  who  will  be  named  in  this  article,  giving  many 
examples  to  illustrate  their  right  to  be  termed  giants,  and 
while  I  will  name  those  he  has  referred  to,  I  shall  repeat 
but  very  few  of  the  incidents  he  has  so  fully  set  out,  and 
will  give  many  names  he  has  omitted.  And  so  far  as  it 
has  been  possible  at  this  late  day,  I  will  give  the  names  of 
the  States  from  which  they  immigrated  to  this  county. 
Mr.  Stevens'  article  is  added  as  an  appendix  hereto. 

Almost  all  of  these  men  were  peacable,  industrious,  and 
desirable  citizens,  who  would  have  been  an  honor  to  any 
community.  They  were  largely  consistent  members  of  the 
various  churches  of  the  county,  Presbyterian,  Baptist, 
Quakers,  Methodist  and  Christian.  And  it  is  well  that  they 
were  of  such  character,  for  had  they  been  quarrelsome  and 
vicious,  the  good  and  quiet  people  would  have  been  com- 
pelled to  leave  and  allow  them  to  enjoy  the  country  alone. 
But  with  few  exceptions,  they  were  always  found  on  the 
side  of  peace  and  good  order. 

The  men  whose  names  I  shall  set  out  in  this  paper  were 
engaged  in  all  of  the  various  industries  of  their  time,  such  as 
ministers,  lawyers,  physicians,  farmers,  manufacturers, 
mechanics,  laborers,  etc. 


PART  I 
EARLY  SETTLERS 

The  champion  of  all  these  in  all  classes,  who  admittedly 
stood  at  the  head  of  the  list  in  every  kind  of  contest,  was 
Maj.  Abram  Stover.  "Uncle  Abe"  as  he  was  called,  was  a 
large,  well  proportioned,  portly  man,  near  seven  feet  tall, 
who  could  easily  meet  the  efforts  of  all  others  in  trials  of 
strength  or  physical  contests.  What  the  extent  of  his 
strength  actually  was,  no  one  seems  to  have  known,  as  he 
was  never  known  to  have  been  called  on  to  test  it  to  the 
limit. 

Madison  Short,  with  whose  name  this  paper  opened, 
while  engaged  on  the  work  near  New  Albany,  saw  Mr. 
Stover  coming  down  the  road  towards  where  he  was  work- 
ing, driving  a  four  horse  team.  Short  was  well  acquainted 
with  Stover,  and  this  being  soon  after  his  talk  with  the 
foreman  about  the  Washington  County  Giants,  he  called 
out  to  men  working  with  him,  "You  think  I  am  big,  come 
here  and  I  will  show  you  a  real  giant  from  Washington 
county. "  And  when  Stover  drove  up,  he  went  out  and 
shook  hands  with  him  and  introduced  him.  Stover  was 
prevailed  on  to  stop  and  give  some  exhibitions  of  strength 
which  he  did  to  the  great  astonishment  of  all  present. 

An  old  neighbor  and  friend  of  Stover  related  the  follow- 
ing incident  of  the  first  time  he  was  called  on  to  employ  his 
strength,  then  unknown  to  him.  The  neighbor  said  it  was 
told  by  Stover,  as  follows : 

One  day  in  the  summer  time  he,  a  large  over-sized, 
awkward  boy  of  sixteen,  was  walking  along  the  public  road 

375 


376  Washington  County  Giants 

when  he  was  overtaken  by  a  stranger  on  horseback,  who 
asked  him  some  fool  question,  and  received  an  answer  in 
kind.  The  man  who  had  then  passed  him,  turned  and  said 
"You  must  be  a  fool."  "That  may  be,"  said  Stover,  "but 
it  seems  that  there  are  two  of  us."  This  remark  from  the 
boy  seemed  to  rile  the  man  and  he  rode  back,  got  off  his 
horse,  hitched  him  and  came  up  to  Stover  and  said  he  would 
lick  him  and  teach  him  better  manners.  Catching  him  by 
his  shoulders,  he  backed  him  into  a  fence  corner  and  began 
shaking  him  and  finally  drew  back  to  strike,  but  Stover 
was  too  quick  for  him  and  hit  first,  and  the  man  went 
down  and  took  the  count,  and  then  some.  Stover  turned 
him  over  and  shook  him,  but  he  did  not  revive  and  he 
became  frightened.  He  picked  the  limp  form  up  and  put 
it  over  the  fence  where  the  hogs  that  were  then  allowed 
to  run  in  the  road  could  not  get  to  him,  and  started  along 
the  road  as  fast  as  he  could  run  and  crying;  but  soon  he 
met  a  neighbor  who  stopped  him  and  asked  what  was  the 
matter,  and  Stover  told  him  he  killed  a  man  up  the  road. 
The  man  asked  him  how  it  was  done  and  he  related  the 
circumstances  and  said  he  hit  him  with  his  fist.  The  old 
gentleman  said,  "Come  back  and  we  will  see  about  it." 

They  went  back  and  found  the  man  still  lying  on  the 
ground  unconscious,  but  breathing.  There  was  a  pond 
near,  and  the  old  man  told  Stover  to  go  to  the  pond  and 
get  some  water  in  his  hat;  and  after  carrying  several  hat- 
fuls  of  water  they  revived  him ;  and  when  he  was  able  to 
talk,  he  related  what  had  occurred  the  same  as  the  boy 
Stover,  and  looking  him  over  said  he  had  enough. 

Stover,  in  telling  this  incident,  said  that  was  the  last 
time  he  ever  hit  any  one  with  his  closed  fist;  that  he  had 
had  many  encounters  since  that  time,  but  he  always  struck 


Washington  County  Giants  Z77 

with  his  open  hand  as  he  was  afraid  to  use  his  fist  because 
he  did  not  want  to  kill  any  one. 

Another  occurrence  that  was  related  to  the  writer  by 
one  who  claimed  to  have  been  an  eye  witness,  probably 
shows  a  greater  test  of  actual  strength  than  any  other  that 
is  now  known. 

Stover  was  a  farmer,  and  in  that  day  all  of  the  surplus 
of  the  farm  had  to  be  hauled  to  market  at  New  Albany, 
Jeffersonville  or  Louisville,  in  wagons,  usually  by  four- 
horse  teams.  The  wagoners  usually  carried  their  own  feed 
and  provisions  and  when  they  reached  the  city  they  would 
put  up  at  what  was  called  a  wagon  yard.  Stover  frequently 
went  on  these  trips  while  a  young  man  as  well  as  in  after 
years.  On  one  occasion,  when  Stover  was  about  twenty- 
one  years  of  age,  with  those  in  whose  company  he  had  made 
the  trip,  he  stopped  at  a  yard  in  Portland,  now  a  part  of 
Louisville.  These  yards  were  infested  by  river  gamblers 
and  Stover  liked  to  play  cards.  He  was  well  known  as  he 
had  often  been  there  and  had  always  held  his  own  at  the 
games,  even  with  those  card  sharks.  On  this  occasion,  some 
of  his  friends  found  out  that  they  had  made  up  a  conspiracy 
to  get  him  in  a  game  and  if  he  was  winning,  to  start  a 
row  and  do  him  up,  so  they  warned  Stover  and  told  him 
not  to  be  drawn  in  the  game  that  evening,  but  Stover  said 
nothing.  After  supper,  while  the  camp  fires  were  still  burn- 
ing, they  discovered  Stover  sitting  on  his  wagon  tongue, 
which  he  had  taken  loose  from  the  wagon,  and  in  the  midst 
of  a  game  with  the  gang.  The  friends  gathered  around  to 
see  that  no  advantage  should  be  taken  of  the  "boy."  The 
game  proceeded  and  Stover  raked  in  the  pot,  when  one  of 
the  players  accused  him  of  cheating.  This  brought  all  to 
their  feet  at  once,  and  the  friends  noticed  that  Stover  held 


378  Washington  County  Giants 

the  breast  chains  at  the  end  of  his  wagon  tongue  with  the 
fingers  of  one  hand  through  the  rings.  The  lie  was  passed 
and  then  action  begun.  Stover  sprang  away  from  the 
crowd,  jerked  the  heavy  wagon  tongue  clear  of  the  ground 
and  began  swinging  it  around  him  with  the  one  hand,  like 
a  boy  would  swing  a  "whistling  dick"  at  the  end  of  a 
"string,"  and  making  it  sing  equally  as  loud.  The  would-be 
attackers  stood  off  and  looked  with  amazement.  Stover 
tauntlingly  called  out,  "You  want  to  lick  me  do  you?  Well 
come  on,  swim  in  here,  my  little  fishes,  if  you  want  to  be 
caught" — all  the  time  swinging  the  heavy  tongue  with  the 
one  hand,  never  once  letting  it  touch  the  ground.  But 
they  were  satisfied  that  it  was  best — for  them — to  postpone 
action. 

When  we  take  into  account  that  the  wagon  tongue  was 
made  of  oak  or  hickory,  ten  feet  or  more  long,  about  three 
by  five  inches  at  one  end  and  tapering  gradually  to  about 
three  inches  square  at  the  other  end,  to  which  chains  three 
or  more  feet  long  were  attached,  and  that  Stover  had  hold 
of  the  extreme  end  of  the  chains  with  one  hand  only,  we 
may  be  able  to  form  some  slight  conception  of  the  immense 
strength  required  to  swing  it  clear  of  the  ground  and  with 
such  speed  that  it  remained  in  the  air  as  long  as  the  motion 
was  kept  up.  After  this  display,  there  was  no  more  seeking 
a  contest  with  the  young  giant. 

A  man  by  the  name  of  John  Brough  married  Stover's 
daughter.  Brough  was  in  the  giant  class,  and  concluded 
he  wanted  to  measure  strength  with  "the  old  man."  Stover 
finally  consented.  They  met  according  to  terms,  when 
Stover  threw  Brough  over  his  head  and  in  the  fall  he  broke 
his  leg.    The  old  man  remained  boss  of  the  household. 

Thomas  Denney,  though  under  size,  being  less  than  six 


Washington  County  Giants  379 

feet  tall,  was  considered  the  next  in  strength  to  Stover,  and 
in  fact  Denney 's  friends  claimed  he  was  superior.  Denney 
lived  north  of  Salem  and  Stover  south.  They  were  great 
friends  and  frequently  met  in  town.  Their  respective 
friends  often  tried  to  get  up  a  match  between  them  and 
finally  arranged  a  public  test  in  which  Stover  was  awarded 
the  decision.  They  afterwards  had  several  tests  in  private, 
but  would  not  talk  about  it.  After  one  of  them,  Stover  was 
asked  who  won.  He  said  "Denney  is  a  good  man  and  can 
hit  mighty  hard,"  and  no  further  information  could  be 
obtained. 

Thomas  Denney  came  from  Virginia  to  Washington 
county.  But  I  have  been  unable  to  learn  from  what  State 
Abram  Stover  migrated.  He  must  have  been  quite  young 
when  he  arrived  here.  Many  other  stories  are  related  of 
these  men,  but  to  rehearse  all  of  them  would  make  too  long 
a  story  for  a  paper  of  this  character.  Many  of  them  are 
collected  in  Stevens'  History  of  the  County,  and  are  added 
as  an  appendix  hereto. 

James  Uppinghouse  and  James  Lee  were  two  others  in 
the  giant  class,  both  large  men  of  extraordinary  strength,  an 
interesting  account  of  whom  may  be  found  in  the  same 
history.     It  is  not  now  known  where  they  came  from. 

Free  speaking  ministers  also  had  to  sometimes  fall  back 
on  the  unusual  strength  with  which  they  were  endowed. 
Aaron  Hubbard,  a  minister  of  the  Christian  church,  lived 
at  Little  York  in  the  northeast  part  of  the  county.  He  was 
a  large  active  man,  of  great  strength,  spare  and  sinewy  and 
without  fear.  And  when  preaching  required  all  present  to 
keep  good  order.  On  one  occasion,  it  is  related,  when  hold- 
ing services  at  a  country  church,  a  large  bullet-headed 
young  man  came  in  and  noisily  took  a  seat  near  the  center 


380  Washington  County  Giants 

of  the  room,  and  at  once  began  creating  a  disturbance. 
Hubbard  remonstrated  with  him  once  or  twice,  but  to  no 
purpose.  The  minister  took  off  his  coat,  asked  the  congre- 
gation to  excuse  him  for  a  few  minutes  as  he  had  a  matter 
outside  to  attend  to.  He  walked  down  the  aisle,  took  the 
bully  by  the  collar,  lifted  him  out  of  the  seat  and  carried 
him  out  the  door.  A  commotion  was  heard  outside  but  no 
one  went  to  investigate  and  they  soon  came  in  together. 
The  bully  took  his  seat.  Hubbard  went  to  the  pulpit,  put 
on  his  coat  and  resumed  the  sermon  where  he  had  broken 
off  and  the  services  were  finished  without  further  interrup- 
tion. 

Many  other  stories  of  similar  character  are  told  of  Mr. 
Hubbard,  but  this  one  shows  his  character,  and  it  is  said 
that  all  seeking  trouble  at  church  services,  made  sure  that 
Aaron  Hubbard  was  not  present  before  they  started  any- 
thing. 

While  slavery  was  not  tolerated  in  Indiana,  there  were 
many  in  this  locality  in  sympathy  with  the  institution. 
Hubbard  is  said  to  have  donated  the  ground  upon  which 
the  church  at  his  place  was  located  and  practically  paid 
most  of  the  cost  of  construction.  He  spoke  strongly 
against  human  slavery  and  once,  after  an  unusually  strong 
sermon  in  the  church  on  the  subject,  some  of  the  members 
took  exceptions,  and  proposed  to  procure  another  minister. 
Hubbard  said  nothing  until  he  learned  who  the  objectors 
were  and  then  at  the  next  service,  most  of  them  being 
present,  he  brought  the  subject  up,  and  he  was  told  that 
they  had  concluded  to  procure  another  minister  whose 
views  more  nearly  agreed  with  their  own  and  they  would 
dispense  with  his  services  in  that  house.  He  said  they  were 
welcome  to  engage  any  other  minister  they  might  select, 


Washington  County  Giants  381 

but  he  would  continue  services  in  the  house;  that  the 
house  stood  on  his  ground,  that  he  had  paid  all  but  a  small 
portion  of  the  cost  of  construction  and  had  preached  with- 
out compensation  to  speak  of.  Then  said,  "Now,  brethren 
if  you  are  dissatisfied  with  my  preaching,  you  can  cut  off 
in  one  corner,  the  small  portion  of  the  house  that  your 
contributions  represent,  procure  your  minister  and  hold 
services  in  your  portion  of  the  house  without  interruption 
from  me,  but  I  will  continue  to  preach  the  WORD  OF 
GOD  from  the  pulpit.  That  ended  the  controversy.  He 
was  called  "The  fighting  parson." 

William  Cravens  was  born  in  Virginia  and  grew  up  to 
be  a  man  of  great  size  and  strength  and  is  said  to  have  been 
a  great  "scrapper"  in  his  young  days.  But  in  early  man- 
hood he  joined  the  Methodist  church  and  soon  became  the 
leading  minister  in  his  locality.  He  abhored  the  institution 
of  slavery  and  is  said  to  have  often  condemed  it  in  his  public 
sermons  delivered  in  Virginia,  which  made  him  unpopular. 

On  one  occasion,  after  a  vigorous  sermon  on  the  subject, 
some  of  his  congregation  took  him  to  task  and  demanded 
that  he  publically  apologize  for  his  act,  which  he  readily 
agreed  to  do  and  the  time  and  place  for  such  apology  was 
agreed  upon  and  duly  advertised.  Mr.  Cravens  was 
promptly  on  hand  and  took  the  pulpit  and  the  house  was 
packed  to  the  limit,  and  while  he  duly  apologized  for  the 
former  sermon  the  apology  was  by  far  a  severer  arraign- 
ment of  the  institution  than  the  sermon  had  been.  After 
the  conclusion  of  the  services,  the  men  of  the  congregation 
gathered  in  groups  to  discuss  it  and  one  of  them  remarked 
in  rather  a  loud  tone,  that  he  ought  to  be  horsewhipped. 
Cravens  overheard  the  remark,  as  was  probably  intended, 
and  going  up  to  the  group,  seized  hold  of  a  small  tree  and 


382  Washington  County  Giants 

gave  such  an  exhibition  of  bodily  strength  as  to  astonish  all 
who  witnessed  it,  and  then  turning  to  the  speaker,  said, 
"The  Lord  did  not  give  me  such  strength  to  allow  myself 
to  be  horsewhipped  by  a  slaveholder."  That  ended  the  con- 
troversy. He  afterward  moved  to  Indiana  and  continued  in 
the  ministry  and  in  those  rough  and  strenuous  times,  his 
vigorous  and  unmeasured  condemnation  of  error  and  some 
of  the  customs  of  the  time,  frequently  necessitated  him  to 
call  on  the  immense  reserve  strength  with  which  he  had 
been  so  generously  endowed.  But  in  Indiana  he  was  at  all 
times  highly  respected,  not  only  by  the  church  people,  but 
also  by  those  whom  he  arraigned  most  severely.  He  was 
commonly  termed  "The  fighting  Methodist." 

Four  brothers,  John,  James,  Hugh  and  William  Rodman, 
emigrated  from  Pennsylvania  to  Kentucky,  where  John 
located,  but  his  three  brothers  came  to  Washington  county, 
Indiana,  in  the  early  days  of  its  history.  John  Rodman  was 
the  grandfather  of  Admiral  Hugh  Rodman,  now  of  the 
United  States  Navy,  and  James  was  the  father  of  General 
Thomas  Jackson  Rodman,  who  invented  the  one-time 
famous  Rodman  gun. 

Doctor  A.  W.  King,  now  of  Redlands,  California,  to 
whom  I  am  indebted  for  much  that  is  contained  in  this 
paper,  and  who  knew  the  three  brothers,  James,  Hugh  and 
William,  describes  them  as  physical  giants,  six  and  a  half 
feet  high  and  weighing  fully  two  hundred  and  fifty  pounds, 
well  proportioned  and  unusually  fine  looking  men. 

William  lived  in  Salem  and  operated  a  mill.  He  had  fair 
business  ability  and  was  an  earnest,  consistent  member  of 
the  Presbyterian  church  and  a  model  citizen. 

Hugh  was  in  every  way  the  equal  of  his  brothers,  both 
in  size  and  strength.     He  lived  on  a  farm,  and  frequently 


Washington  County  Giants  383 

hauled  produce  to  the  city  markets  with  a  four  or  five-horse 
team.  It  is  said  of  him,  on  these  occasions,  that  when  load- 
ing his  wagon,  to  determine  if  he  had  a  sufficient  or  too 
much  load  for  his  team,  he  would  back  up  to  one  of  the 
hind  wheels,  take  hold  of  a  spoke  on  each  side  of  the  hub1 
and  if  he  could  raise  the  wheel  clear  of  the  ground  his  team 
would  be  able  to  pull  it  through,  but  if  he  was  unable  to  lift 
the  wheel,  he  would  unload  a  part,  as  it  was  too  heavy  for 
the  team.     Some  lift. 

On  one  occasion  when  going  to  market  with  more  than 
one  wagon,  he  had  a  boy  driving  the  one  in  front.  They 
came  upon  some  other  teamsters  who  had  stopped  for 
dinner.  They  had  driven  their  wagons  to  the  side  of  the 
road  but  had  built  their  fire  in  the  middle  of  the  road  and 
were  sitting  around  it,  four  in  number.  There  was  not 
room  to  pass  around  them  and  the  boy  stopped  and  asked 
them  to  allow  him  to  pass,  which  they  refused.  Rodman 
then  came  forward  and  made  the  same  request.  They  again 
refused  to  move.  He  then  said  to  them,  "Gentlemen,  I 
will  again  ask  you  to  move  out  of  the  road  so  we  can  pass, 
and  if  you  do  not  do  it,  I  will  move  you."  They  dared  him 
to  attempt  it.  Thereupon  he  picked  one  of  them  up  with- 
out any  apparent  effort  and  threw  him  to  the  side  of  the 
road  and  as  the  others  arose  knocked  them  down  in  turn. 
He  again  asked  them  to  clear  the  road,  which  they  promptly 
did,  and  Rodman  went  on  his  way  with  his  teams.  He,  like 
his  brothers,  was  a  good  citizen  and  did  not  seek  trouble 
nor  occasions  to  display  his  strength. 

James  Rodman  was,  perhaps,  the  more  aggressive  of  the 
three  brothers,  but  notwithstanding  his  size  and  strength, 
was  a  good  citizen.  He  was  a  prominent  and  influential 
member  of  the  Democratic  party  and  of  the  Baptist  church. 


384  Washington  County  Giants 

Once  in  a  crowd,  a  small  man  took  offense  at  something 
Rodman  had  said  and  pitched  into  him  with  a  shower  of 
harmless  blows.  This  Rodman  endured  good  naturedly 
until  it  became  annoying,  when  he  picked  the  little  fellow 
up  and  tossed  him  astride  the  crotch  of  a  small  walnut 
tree  near  by. 

George  Housh  was  one  of  the  large  men  even  in  that  day 
of  giants,  perhaps  the  equal  of  James  Rodman  in  stature, 
not  fleshy  but  bony  and  muscular.  A  regular  athlete  and  a 
great  wrestler.     Doctor  King  says  of  him : 

"I  remember  a  wrestling  match  between  him  and  James 
Rodman  on  election  day.  They  adopted  'side  holts'  and  it 
was  long  in  doubt  which  would  win.  But  finally  Rodman, 
who  was  a  Sampson  as  well  as  a  Goliath,  got  Housh  on  his 
hip,  swinging  him  over  his  head,  threw  him  on  his  back 
with  a  thud." 

Andrew  Housh,  a  brother  of  George,  was  perhaps,  his 
equal  in  size  and  strength,  "but  in  no  sense  a  sport,"  but  a 
zealous  churchman.  He  was  a  tanner  by  trade.  He  owned 
and  operated  a  grist  mill  on  the  north  bank  of  Muscackituck 
river,  at  Millport.  The  power  being  supplied  by  a  partner- 
ship dam  across  the  river  owned  by  him  and  John  DePauw, 
who  had  a  mill  on  the  south  bank.  He  was  also  an  exhorter 
and  a  "jack  leg  lawyer,"  practicing  in  petty  cases  before 
justices  of  the  peace. 

According  to  Doctor  King  and  as  the  following  incidents 
will  show,  "he  had  no  mercy  on  the  King's  English." 

At  one  time  attempting  to  quote  from  the  State  constitu- 
tion, "No  ex  post  facto  law,  or  law  impairing  the  obligation 
of  contracts,  shall  ever  be  passed,  "he  had  it,  "The  legisla- 
ture shall  make  no  ipso  facto  or  other  law  to  nulificate  or 
impair  the  vandility  of  contracts." 


Washington  County  Giants  385 

At  another  time  when  defending  a  poor  boy  who  had 
been  indentured  during  minority  to  a  farmer  and  had  run 
away  because  of  ill  treatment,  Housh,  in  his  argument  said, 
"I  often  saw  the  boy  at  work  in  the  field,  in  the  boiling 
sun,  the  pouring  rain  and  the  fleecing  snow,  poorly  clad  in 
sackcloth  and  raiment  and  he  appeared  to  be  in  indignant 
circumstances." 

At  an  infare  dinner  in  passing  the  viands  to  the  guests, 
he  observed  "They  are  most  melodious." 

He  complimented  a  lady  who  was  showing  him  the 
flowers  in  her  garden  on  her  "beautiful  artificials." 

Once  in  prayer  meeting  when  pleading  for  charity  for 
some  offenders  he  said,  "Men  are  all  prone  to  faculties  and 
infallibilities." 

At  times  he  also  seemed  as  careless  of  the  facts  as  he 
was  with  the  language.  Speaking  of  a  sudden  freeze  at  an 
early  day  he  said,  "A  bunch  of  wild  horses  that  were  fight- 
ing flies  on  the  hillside,  became  frightened  and  ran  down 
the  hill  and  all  fell  down  on  the  ice  on  my  mill  pond  and 
I  captured  all  of  them." 

Some  one  suggested  that  it  was  not  usual  to  have  ice  in 
fly  time,  but  he  was  equal  to  the  occasion  and  responded, 
"By  gracious,  the  pond  froze  solid  in  five  minutes  and  it 
began  to  freeze  at  the  bottom." 

A  large  sycamore  log  lodged  on  his  mill  dam  and  after- 
ward, in  telling  of  it  he  said,  "It  weighed  a  million  tons  and 
it  was  all  I  could  do  to  pry  it  off  with  a  hand  spike." 

But  notwithstanding  his  "faculties  and  infallibilities  and 
multitudinous  ponderosities"  he  was  kind  hearted  and  gen- 
erous to  a  fault. 

Micajah  Callaway,  Sr.,  came  from  Virginia  to  Kentucky 
with  Daniel  Boone  where  he  continued  as  Boone's  most 


386  Washington  County  Giants 

trusted  companion  until  Boone  left  Kentucky,  when  he 
came  to  Washington  county  and  lived  a  quiet  life  until  his 
death.  His  feats  and  history  are  so  fully  set  out  in  the 
Life  of  Boone  that  it  is  unnecessary  to  repeat  them  here. 

Marston  G.  Clark,  also  of  Virginia,  was  also  an  Indian 
fighter,  and  a  surveyor.  It  is  said  that  in  his  early  surveys 
he  used  a  grape  vine  instead  of  a  chain. 

At  one  time  in  the  woods  near  his  residence,  he  met  a 
young  man  with  a  new  gun,  that  attracted  his  attention. 
They  were  near  a  small  dead  tree  that  had  been  so  charred 
by  fire  that  it  was  covered  with  black  charcoal  from  top 
to  bottom.  Clark  asked  to  examine  the  gun.  The  young 
man  handed  it  to  him  and  after  having  inspected  it  he  said 
to  the  young  man,  "I  will  now  teach  you  a  lesson  you 
should  never  forget.    Climb  that  stump." 

The  fellow  took  one  look  at  Clark  and  up  the  black 
stump  he  went  and  when  he  came  down  Clark  said,  "The 
lesson  I  wished  to  impress  on  your  mind  is,  never  hand  your 
loaded  gun  to  a  stranger  in  the  woods,"  and  handed  the  gun 
back  to  him. 

The  man  took  the  gun,  backed  off  a  few  steps,  threw  it 
to  his  shoulder  and  leveled  it  on  Clark  saying,  "The  lesson 
is  a  good  one,  but  you  seem  to  have  forgotten  it  as  soon  as 
imparted,  and  now  to  impress  its  importance  on  you,  you 
climb  that  stump."  Clark  cast  one  glance  at  the  eye  looking 
at  him  through  the  sights  of  the  gun,  and  realizing  he  was 
caught  in  his  own  trap,  proceeded  to  go  up  the  stump  as 
directed.  When  he  came  down  he  said,  "We  are  even  and 
I  rather  like  you.  I  live  in  that  house  over  there.  Come 
with  me  and  we  will  have  dinner."  When  the  man  seemed 
to  hesitate,  Clark  said  the  rule  does  not  hold  good  in  a 
man's  house  with  his  invited  guests  whom  it  is  his  duty  to 


Washington  County  Giants  387 

protect.  They  went  to  dinner  together,  and  were  always 
friends  afterward. 

Henry  Baker,  who  came  from  North  Carolina,  was  a  man 
of  great  size  and  strength.  Being  forced  to  defend  himself 
against  an  enraged  drunken  man,  he  is  said  to  have  struck 
the  fellow  a  blow  with  his  fist  on  the  body  and  killed  him 
almost  instantly. 

Pritchard  Morris,  and  his  brother,  Jehosaphat  Morris, 
Sr.,  also  from  North  Carolina,  would  measure  up  in  stature 
with  others  named.  At  one  time  when  there  was  a  gather- 
ing to  erect  a  log  house,  Pritchard  being  present,  they  had 
put  up  the  rafters  before  dinner  and  after  dinner,  as  usual 
on  such  occasions,  there  were  trials  of  strength. 

Prichard  Morris  had  climbed  on  the  building  where  the 
next  work  was  to  be  done  and  sat  watching  those  engaged 
in  these  feats.  Finally  he  said,  "Boys  I  will  show  you 
something  to  try."  He  then  grasped  a  rafter  with  his  hands 
on  each  side  of  him,  dropped  his  body  between  them,  hang- 
ing suspended  by  his  hands,  he  worked  his  way  up  to  the 
peak  of  the  rafters  and  down  the  other  side  without  resting. 
Taking  his  seat  he  said,  "When  any  of  you  can  do  that  I 
will  show  you  something  else."  But  none  was  able  to 
match  him. 

When  we  take  into  account  that  Morris  weighed  more 
than  two  hundred  pounds  and  that  the  rafters  were  proba- 
bly near  three  feet  apart  we  may  be  able  to  form  some  con- 
ception of  the  effort. 

But  we  can  not  give  incidents  as  to  all  of  the  men  who 
measured  up  to  the  standard  and  will  only  give  the  names 
of  many  with  the  States  from  which  they  came  so  far  as 
known.  George  Hattabaugh,  Virginia;  Col.  Henry  Dewalt, 
Pennsylvania,  and  Col.  Ezekiel  D.  Logan,  Kentucky,  who 


388  Washington  County  Giants 

organized  and  led  the  forces  who  pursued  the  Pigeon 
Roost  Indians;  Robert  Strain,  David  Vance,  William  and 
Elisha  Hobbs,  brothers  from  North  Carolina;  James  Young, 
Sr.,  Garrett  W.  Logan,  Kentucky;  Alexander,  Benjamin  and 
Samuel  Huston,  brothers,  from  Kentucky;  Henry  Wyman, 
George  Madison,  Aaron  and  Jacob  Short,  from  North 
Carolina.  They  were  not,  as  their  name  would  indicate, 
short,  but  long  and  large.  Madison,  whose  name  was  men- 
tioned at  the  beginning  of  this  paper  and  in  connection  with 
Abram  Stover,  is  said  to  have  originated  the  name  Hoosier, 
as  applied  to  the  people  of  Indiana. 

As  the  story  goes,  he  was  working  on  the  canal  at  Louis- 
ville and  one  day,  being  victorious  in  a  strenuous  fistic 
contest  with  three  of  the  other  laborers,  he  jumped  up  shak- 
ing his  fist  and  said :  "You  do  not  want  to  tackle  me,  I'm  a 
Hoosher  (Husher).  But  those  who  heard  him  got  it 
Hoosier  and  ever  after  they  called  all  men  from  Indiana, 
Hoosiers.  True  or  not,  the  story  is  characteristic  of  the 
times  and  people. 

Then  there  was  Septemus  Goodwin,  commonly  called 
September  Goodwin,  Jesse  Stanley,  Sr.,  James  Coffin, 
North  Carolina,  Christian  Prow,  Sr.,  Godlove  Kemp,  asso- 
ciate judge;  George  May,  Sr.,  John  Curry,  Sr.,  David  Den- 
nis, Rhode  Island;  Abram  Fleenor,  John  Aton,  Adam 
Barnett,  Capt.  Zephaniah  Johnson,  John  Rowland,  and 
many  others  whose  names  have  not  been  procured. 

Daniel  Soliday,  who  lived  in  the  north  part  of  the  county, 
was  killed  by  the  Indians.  He  was  a  man  of  great  stature 
and  strength.  He  would  never  carry  a  gun  for  protection 
against  the  Indians,  saying  that  he  did  not  fear  any  Indian 
in  anything  like  a  fair  contest.  He  had  gone  out  in  the 
morning  to  look  for  stock  and  not  returning,  search  was 


Washington   County  Giants  389 

made.  At  the  point  where  his  body  was  found  there  was 
every  evidence  of  a  fierce  struggle.  It  appeared  there  had 
been  several  of  the  Indians  and  that  they  had  ambushed 
Soliday.  But  how  much  the  Indians  had  suffered  was 
never  known  as  they  always  carried  off  the  dead  and 
wounded  when  possible. 

Jacob  Soliday  was  perhaps  the  equal  of  his  brother,  but 
always  took  his  gun  with  him.  He  was  killed,  presumably 
by  the  same  party  of  Indians.  He,  too,  had  gone  in  search 
of  stock  and  when  they  found  his  body,  there  was  no  doubt 
that  he  had  put  up  a  strong  fight.  The  stock  of  his  gun 
was  broken.  The  charge  had  been  fired  and  the  barrel  was 
bent  and  in  his  clinched  hand  he  held  the  scalp  lock  of  one 
of  the  Indians  which  he  had  evidently  torn  from  the  head 
of  one  of  his  adverseries.  So  there  could  be  no  doubt  that 
one  at  least  had  suffered  severely  in  the  encounter 

The  Indians  were  pursued  as  soon  as  a  force  could  be 
organized  but  they  were  not  overtaken,  it  having  taken  too 
long  to  get  the  men  together  in  that  thinly  settled  commu- 
nity where  the  first  consideration  was  to  get  the  women 
and  children  to  a  place  of  safety  while  the  men  were  gone. 

John  Zink,  Kentucky,  was  a  young  man  of  great  size. 
He  joined  the  forces  that  went  in  pursuit  of  the  Pigeon 
Roost  Indians,  and  with  one  of  his  companions,  came  up 
with  some  of  them  in  what  is  now  Bartholomew  county, 
where  Zink  was  wounded  by  a  shot  through  the  hips,  which 
rendered  his  lower  limbs  useless.  His  companion  helped 
him  to  cover  and  then  went  for  assistance.  On  returning 
later,  Zink  was  not  there,  but  they  followed  a  trail  and 
cam  upon  Zink  something  like  a  mile  away.  He  had 
dragged  himself  by  his  hands,  grasping  bushes,  roots  and 
anything  he  could   get  hold  of,   but   still   alive.     They   con- 


39°  Washington  County  Giants 

structed  a  litter  and  placed  him  on  it  and  started  back, 
arriving  at  a  spring  where  Vallonia  now  stands,  late  in  the 
afternoon  and  went  into  camp  for  the  night,  where  Zink 
died  during  the  night.  The  body  was  brought  to  Salem  and 
buried  on  the  farm  now  owned  by  Howard  Brown,  just 
north  of  town. 

Henry  C.  Munroe  will  be  the  last  one  in  this  class  of 
giant  early  settlers  that  I  shall  mention.  And  I  do  not 
know  how  better  to  describe  him  than  in  the  words  of 
Dr.  A.  W.  King,  who  speaks  from  memory.  So  to  quote 
Doctor  King: 

''Henry  C.  Munroe,  a  rock-rooted  wheel  horse  of  the 
Democratic  party,  was  at  one  time  a  member  of  the  legis- 
lature. He  was  a  man  of  large  stature,  strong  and  muscu- 
lar, a  prosperous  farmer  in  the  (barrens)  west  of  Salem. 

"After  the  election  of  1844,  he  watched  closely  for  the 
result.  One  night  he  was  awakened  by  the  booming  of  the 
cannon  (anvil)  at  Salem,  and  thinking  it  announced  the 
triumph  of  President  Polk,  he  called  up  his  wife  and  Jake, 
armed  them  with  boards  and  himself  with  his  blunderbuss. 
At  every  report  of  the  cannon  he  would  fire  his  fuzee — his 
wife  would  strike  a  ringing  blow  on  the  barn  and  Jake  a 
strenuous  blow  in  the  hard  road.  After  a  few  rounds  the 
colonel  called  a  halt.  'Stop  old  woman,  stop  Jake.  Maybe 
we  are  too  fast — that  is  to  say — maybe  it's  the  other  fellow 
that's  elected.'  But  his  heart  was  made  happy  next  day  on 
getting  the  news." 

So  we  see  that  life  among  these  men  was  not  all  play 
They  took  an  active  interest  in  affairs  and  passing  events. 
They  were  mostly  good  and  active  business  men,  and  took 
the  political  questions  as  seriously  as  we  do  in  the  day  of 
universal  sufferage. 


Washington  County  Giants  391 

The  writer  has  in  his  possession  a  letter,  dated  January 
7,  1831,  written  by  John  Rodman  from  the  senate  chamber 
at  Frankfort,  Ky.,  to  a  resident  of  Salem.  From  the  words 
of  the  letter,  I  judge  Rodman  was  a  member  of  that 
body.  He  describes  an  effort  of  the  legislature  to  elect  a 
United  States  senator.  The  contest  was  between  what  he 
terms  the  Clay  men  and  the  Jackson  men.  After  sixteen 
ballots,  having  failed  to  make  a  choice,  by  resolution,  they 
postponed  the  election  for  the  session. 

Politics  with  these  men  in  their  day  was  evidently  not 
very  different  from  the  present  time. 

These  men,  while  of  giant  size  and  strength,  were  among 
the  very  best  citizens  and  would  have  been  a  credit  to  any 
community  in  any  time.  Their  sources  of  amusements 
were  few,  aside  from  the  trials  of  strength  and  physical 
skill  and  they  evidently  made  the  best  of  their  opportunities 
along  their  limited  lines. 

Yet  they  subdued  the  wilderness,  fought  wild  beasts  and 
savage  men ;  cleared  the  unbroken  forest,  established  homes 
for  themselvs  and  families;  built  school  houses  and  organ- 
ized and  maintained  churches  and  made  the  waste  places 
fit  for  the  habitation  of  civilized  man. 

What  a  pity  these  memoirs  had  not  have  been  begun  and 
not  only  begun  but  completed  fifty  years  ago,  while  most 
of  these  remarkable  men  were  living  and  the  events  fresh 
in  their  memories.  We  now  get  at  these  events  more  as 
traditions  than  as  facts  of  history.  But  in  the  preparation 
of  this  paper  I  have  received  the  hearty  co-operation  and 
assistance  of  Dr.  A.  W.  King,  of  Redlands,  Calif.,  whose 
life  span  covers  the  period  in  which  these  men  lived  to 
the  present  time,  and  whose  wonderful  recollection  of 
names  and  events  has  been  of  invaluable  assistance. 


392  Washington  County  Giants 

The  most  of  these  early  pioneers  were  men  grown  when 
they  came  to  this  county.  They  had  attained  their  unusual 
stature  and  development  before  they  arrived  here,  and  this 
fact  opens  an  interesting  field  for  investigation.  So  far 
as  it  has  been  possible  to  obtain  the  facts,  I  have  given  the 
States  from  which  they  came.  But  in  that  day,  the  condi- 
tions of  life  were  very  much  the  same  in  all  newly  settled 
localities,  and  it  is  a  well  established  fact,  that  the  pioneers 
of  this  country,  as  a  class,  usually  make  at  least  two  moves 
as  the  frontier  receded,  before  they  finally  established  them- 
selves. And  a  large  portion  of  their  descendants  followed 
in  the  foot-steps  of  their  fathers. 

It  is  not  claimed  by  the  writer,  that  this  account  gives 
the  names  of  all  of  the  men  of  that  day,  that  might  right- 
fully be  classed  as  giants.  In  fact  such  would  be  an  impos- 
sibility in  the  short  time  I  have  employed  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  this  paper.  And  then  such  a  compilation  would 
make  a  book  of  large  size,  too  lengthy  for  an  article  of  this 
character.  The  names  here  set  out  are  only  claimed  to 
represent  a  very  few  of  the  early  inhabitants  who  were 
entitled  to  a  place  by  the  side  of  those  mentioned. 

But  now  we  must  leave  these  early  pioneers  and  pass 
on  to  the  next  generation.     For  the  race  has  not  died  out. 


PART  II 
SECOND  GENERATION 

"Like  father,  like  son"  is  as  true  of  races  of  men  as 
it  is  of  other  characteristics.  And  by  following  along  our 
line  of  investigation,  we  find  the  type  of  men  of  which  we 
are  writing,  continues  through  the  second  generation. 

While  it  is  probably  as  difficult  to  classify  them  as  to 
the  age  in  which  they  lived,  or  the  generation  to  which 
they  should  be  assigned,  as  it  is  to  determine  the  dividing 
line  between  an  ordinary  man  and  the  giant,  I  shall  assign 
them  to  the  class  of  the  period  in  which  they  lived  the 
greater  part  of  their  lives.  Many  of  those  whose  names 
will  appear  in  this  class  came  to  the  county  as  children 
with  their  parents,  some  of  whom  are  named  in  the  preced- 
ing pages.  Nor  is  this  intended  to  be  a  list  of  all  who 
might  be  mentioned,  but  just  a  very  few  whose  names  the 
writer  can  call  to  mind  of  his  former  acquaintances.  All  of 
whom,  like  those  in  Part  I,  have  passed  over  to  the  beyond. 
Nor  shall  I  devote  much  time  or  space  to  illustrations  of 
trials  of  strength  as  these  forms  of  amusement  seem  to 
have  passed  with  the  first  generation.  But  they  shall  be 
measured  as  to  stature  by  the  same  rule  as  the  former,  and 
we  will  find  that  they  measure  well  up  to  the  former  stand- 
ard. 

Horace  and  Delos  Heffren,  brothers,  natives  of  New 
York  State,  were  both  well  over  six  feet.  Horace  was  a 
lawyer  and  weighed  more  than  four  hundred  pounds,  and 
was,  perhaps,  the  largest  man  in  the  county  at  that  time. 

393 


394  Washington  County  Giants 

Thomas  J.,  John  and  James  Harvey  Rodman,  sons  of  James 
Rodman,  mentioned  in  Part  I. 

Gen.  Thomas  J.  Rodman  was  the  inventor  of  the  one- 
time famous  Rodman  Gun;  an  improvement  in  the  manner 
of  putting  up  artillery  powder;  and  many  other  things  used 
by  the  army.  The  writer  was  recently  told  by  one  who 
says  he  saw  the  exhibition,  that  one  time  when  the  general 
was  visiting  his  brothers  here,  he  gave  an  exhibition  of  a 
small  machine,  or  repeating  gun,  that  he  held  in  his  hands 
.and  fired  twenty  shots  in  less  than  a  minute,  hitting  the 
target  each  time.  Jasper  N.  Rodman,  son  of  Hugh,  hereto- 
fore mentioned,  Hy.  Peck,  Caleb  W.  Morris,  Noble  Calla- 
way and  James  H.  Callaway,  sons  of  Micajah  Callaway,  Sr., 
Richard  Hix,  Lewis  N.  Smith,  Sr.,  Charles  W.  Mobley, 
John,  George,  Caleb,  Harry  and  Christian  L.  Paynter, 
brothers.  John  Paynter  was  in  great  demand  as  a  young 
man,  to  take  charge  of  unruly  schools,  where  the  selected 
teacher  was  unable  to  control  them,  and  on  account  of  his 
great  size  and  strength,  he  always  succeeded.  Robert, 
Alfred  and  Brad  Uppinghouse,  brothers.  Alfred  Upping- 
house,  one  time  went  to  one  of  his  neighbors,  more  than 
half  a  mile  away,  to  borrow  a  plow.  He  went  on  foot 
across  the  fields  and  when  he  made  the  request,  the  neigh- 
bor said  yes,  and  pointed  to  the  plow  and  asked  him  when 
he  wanted  it.  It  was  a  large  two-horse  plow.  He  replied, 
"I  will  take  it  now."  He  was  asked  how  he  intended  to 
get  it  home.  He  simply  reached  down,  took  the  plow  by 
the  beam  with  one  hand,  put  it  on  his  shoulder  and  walked 
off  with  it  and  carried  it  home,  crossing  three  high  rail 
fences  which  he  climbed  without  setting  the  plow  down  or 
stopping  to  rest. 

Milas  and  James  Young,  Jr.,  who  with  Isaac  Gordon  were 


Washington  County  Giants  395 

mighty  hunters  either  with  gun  or  rocks.  Like  the  left 
handed  Benjaminites,  they  could  throw  a  rock  to  "a  hair's 
breadth  and  never  miss." 

It  is  related  of  Milas  Young  that  he  could  stand  in  front 
of  the  hotel  at  the  southeast  corner  of  the  public  square  in 
Salem,  and  throw  a  silver  dollar  and  land  on  the  West 
Market  street  bridge  every  time.  A  distance  of  more  than 
two  and  a  half  squares,  with  buildings  intervening. 

Cam.  and  Reuben  Medlock,  brothers.  Cam.  was  a  great 
sprinter,  and  fox  hunter.  One  day  a  neighbor  heard  some 
hounds  and  pretty  soon  a  red  fox  came  loping  along  pretty 
well  tired  out  with  Cam.  Medlock  right  after  him  reaching 
for  his  brush.  And  shortly  the  hounds  appeared  looking 
as  weary  as  the  fox,  but  Cam.  seemed  as  fresh  as  ever. 

(Whether  he  caught  the  fox,  deponent  saith  not.) 

William  Hattabaugh,  commonly  called  "Mallet"  on 
account  of  the  unusual  size  of  his  fists  and  his  ability  to  hit 
hard.  Joseph  Denney,  William  and  George  Weston,  broth- 
ers, Harrison  and  Joel  Denney,  brothers.  Robert  Tatlock 
would  not  probably  measure  up  to  the  full  standard  in 
height,  but  what  he  lacked  in  stature,  he  could  make  up 
in  strength.  He  was  a  farmer  and  one  time  he  was  shifting 
some  mules  from  one  inclosure  to  another,  and  they  all 
passed  through  the  opening  but  one,  about  two  years  old, 
which,  mule  like,  seemed  to  wish  to  go  out  every  place 
except  where  the  inclosure  was  open,  and  in  its  rounds 
passed  near  Tatlock,  who  caught  it  and  in  some  manner 
threw  it  over  the  fence. 

Christian  Prow,  Jr.,  Martin  Souder,  John  C.  Lawler,  Eli 
Elrod,  Benjamin  Luck,  William  G.  Jamison,  Lewis  Shanks, 
Moses  Shrum,  Virginia,  Isaac  H.  Hiestand,  Townsend 
Cutshaw,  Stephen  D.  Sayles,  John  Spigler,  Jehosaphat  M. 


396  Washington  County  Giants 

Morris,  Jr.,  David  Cadwalader,  a  merchant  in  Salem.  It  is 
said  that  one  time  he  was  needing  some  goods  and  roads 
were  so  muddy  that  he  could  procure  no  conveyance  and 
he  started  afoot  for  the  city,  thirty-five  miles  away,  made 
his  purchases  and  returned  home  before  night. 

In  addition  to  those  named,  were  the  following  of  unusual 
height  but  lighter  build :  Dr.  Harvey  D.  Henderson,  Olive 
Stanley,  George  Clark,  Philbert  Marion  Wright,  Elwood 
and  Thomas  Trueblood  and  David  M.  Alspaugh. 

But  why  extend  the  list?  Any  community  could  have 
furnished  its  full  quota  of  men  that  would  have  measured 
up  to  the  standard,  whose  names  we  have  not  mentioned. 


PART  III 
OUR  OWN  TIME 

And  still  the  show  goes  on.  All  of  the  men  whose 
names  have  been  heretofore  recorded  in  this  paper,  have 
passed  away.  But  the  cast  is  still  well  filled  with  characters 
that  fully  measure  up  to  the  standards  established  by  their 
predecessors,  without  any  diminution  in  numbers.  And 
as  noticed  in  the  preceding  class,  the  incidents  illustrative 
of  the  possession  of  unusual  strength  grow  fewer. 

The  names  that  I  shall  mention  in  this  part,  with  per- 
haps two  exceptions,  are  those  of  men  still  living,  but  all 
belong  to  the  same  age  as  applied  to  the  races  of  men.  Two 
or  three  grew  to  mature  manhood  in  the  county,  but  have 
since  moved  to  other  localities.  But  the  names  will  be  few, 
not  because  their  numbers  are  few,  but  because  I  deem  it 
unnecessary  to  extend  this  paper  for  the  sole  purpose  of 
mentioning  names. 

We  have  first,  George,  Frank  and  Charles  Morris,  broth- 
ers, and  Matthew,  William  and  Augustus  Markland,  broth- 
ers. Two  very  remarkable  families,  in  size,  appearance, 
intelligence  and  business  capacity,  Alexander  Brock,  Com- 
modore Dawalt,  James  B.  Dawalt,  John  H.  House,  Ben- 
jamin F.  Trueblood,  Flanders  and  Claborne  Denney,  broth- 
ers; Jacob  Williams,  Harry  Barnett,  Dr.  Spencer  Smith, 
Volney  Shull  and  many  others. 

Jacob  Williams  is  first  of  all,  being  seven  feet,  three 
and  one-half  inches,  well  proportioned  and  a  farmer  by 
occupation. 

Henry  W.  Medlock,  the  long-time  well  known  marshal 

397 


398  Washington  County  Giants 

of  Salem,  would  not  measure  up  in  stature  with  the  others, 
but  notwithstanding  this  undersize,  he  was  capable  of  hold- 
ing his  own,  as  was  shown  by  his  long  and  turbulent  expe- 
rience as  marshal  with  the  best  of  them  and  proved  more 
than  a  match  for  all  of  the  would-be  bad  men  who  sought 
so  often  "to  paint  the  town  red"  during  the  early  years  of 
his  official  life. 

He  was  a  man  about  five  feet,  ten  inches  high,  heavy 
built  and  would  weigh  about  one  hundred  and  eighty 
pounds.  But  I  will  give  but  one  instance  of  his  numerous 
contests  with  violators  of  the  laws  who  attempted  to  resist 
arrest.  And  this  one  came  under  the  personal  observation 
of  the  writer.  Medlock,  unlike  the  proverbial  police 
officer  that  is  always  absent  when  most  needed,  seemed 
always  to  be  on  hand  when  his  services  were  called  for. 

One  summer  day  a  man  by  the  name  of  Hamilton,  from 
the  east  part  of  the  county  came  to  town,  as  he  said,  for 
the  express  purpose  of  "doing  the  marshal."  He  was  fully 
six  feet  tall,  well  and  heavily  built  and  was  the  equal  of  the 
marshal  in  weight.  A  fine  looking  fellow  and  one  that 
would  have  been  picked  out  of  crowds  as  an  athlete.  The 
marshal  had  arrested  him  some  time  before  for  some  infrac- 
tion and  on  this  occasion  he  said  that  it  was  the  last  time. 
He  was  somewhat  under  the  influence  of  liquor,  and  after 
making  his  boast,  left  the  parties  to  whom  he  was  talking 
and  started  across  the  street  to  look  for  his  "Whiskers"  as 
the  marshal  was  called. 

Before  he  got  quite  across  the  street  he  came  face  to  face 
with  the  object  of  his  search.  They  both  stopped  a  few 
feet  apart.  Hamilton  reached  for  his  gun  but  instantly  the 
marshal  was  upon  him  and  beat  him  to  it,  taking  the  gun 
out  of  his  pocket  and  putting  it  in  his  own.     Hamilton 


Washington  County  Giants  399 

closed  in  and  they  clinched  and  soon  went  down  in  the 
street.  But  it  did  not  take  many  minutes,  with  the  heavy 
marshal  sitting  on  his  breast  and  gripping  his  throat  with  a 
hold  that  could  not  be  broken,  to  cause  an  unconditional 
surrender  which  was  accepted  and  the  marshal  arose.  But 
it  seemed  that  Hamilton  would  not  get  up.  The  marshal 
tapped  his  feet  a  time  or  two  with  his  billy  but  that  had 
no  effect.  So  he  put  up  his  club,  bent  over,  took  Hamilton 
around  the  middle,  threw  him  over  his  shoulder  and  walked 
off  with  him  to  the  justice's  office.  Hamilton  afterwards 
said  to  the  writer,  in  speaking  of  this  occurrence,  "Whiskers 
can  arrest  me  any  time  in  the  future  without  trouble.  For 
I  know  when  I'm  licked."  The  foregoing  is  but  one  of  the 
numerous  contests  with  violators  of  the  law  who  attempted 
to  resist  arrest  by  the  marshal.  Well  might  he  be  properly 
called  "The  little  giant." 

But  the  men  of  this  day  are  not  ALL  giants.  In  con- 
trast with  the  seven  feet,  three  and  a  half  inches  of  Jacob 
Williams,  is  a  healthy,  good  looking,  well  proportioned  man 
but  little  over  five  feet.  As  a  boy,  he  was  able  to  hold  his 
own  in  the  strenuous,  rough  and  tumble  life  of  the  average 
American  boy  and  is  now  a  quiet  and  active  business  man. 

But  why  continue  to  mention  names  of  men  who  might, 
with  equal  propriety,  be  classed  with  those  whose  names 
I  have  given? 

Those  whom  I  have  mentioned  are  sufficient  for  the 
purposes  of  this  paper,  and  what  is  true  of  the  localities  in 
which  they  respectively  reside,  is  also  true  of  the  entire 
county.  And  what  is  true  of  this  county  is  also  true  of  a 
large  portion  of  the  counties  of  the  State. 

Any  one  who  will  take  notice,  even  to  day,  will  be  very 
forcibly   struck   with   the   large   number   of  good   looking, 


400  Washington  County  Giants 

well  proportioned  men  in  any  gathering,  or  that  he  will  see 
passing  along  the  streets,  who  are  from  five  feet  ten  to  six 
feet  two  inches  in  height.  The  most  of  these  men  he  will 
find  are  natives  of  the  locality.  Is  this  modern,  or  is  it  a 
native  characteristic  of  the  race  or  the  American  type? 

It  is  a  well  established  fact  that  American  men  average 
taller  than  those  of  any  other  country,  but  have,  as  yet  no 
means  of  knowing  whether  these  tall  men  confined  to  cer- 
tain localities  or  whether  it  is  general  with  our  people. 
But  when  we  take  into  account  the  restless  disposition  of 
our  people  and  that  they  are  constantly  shifting  their  habita- 
tions, it  would  seem  that  we  must  conclude  that  they  are 
pretty  evenly  distributed,  in  the  absence  of  reliable  statis- 
tics. 

Measurements  of  the  soldiers  of  the  Civil  war  indicate 
taller  men  in  certain  regions,  but  these  may  not  be  suffi- 
cient to  form  a  correct  basis  from  which  to  determine  the 
question,  although  they  were  sufficient  to  form  the  basis 
for  an  investigation. 

When  the  statistics  and  measurements  of  the  men  called 
for  examination  in  the  late  war  are  fully  compiled  and 
classified,  showing  as  they  do  not  only  the  measurements, 
but  also  the  nativity  and  the  then  habitation,  we  will  have 
the  facts  upon  which  to  base  an  investigation  of  these  inter- 
esting questions  and  from  which  to  draw  pretty  definite 
conclusions.  And  what  a  field  for  investigation  it  will  open 
up. 


APPENDIX  "A" 

Since  the  foregoing  paper  was  prepared,  it  has  been  sug- 
gested to  the  writer  that  some  readers  might  seriously 
question  the  accuracy  of  the  estimates  of  the  stature  and 
size  of  the  many  men  whose  names  have  been  mentioned. 
Of  course  there  is  now  no  way  of  verifying  the  statements 
as  to  all  of  the  men  named  in  parts  I  and  II,  but  as  to  part 
III  I  think  I  can  offer  ample  proof  that  my  estimates  were 
not  over  drawn. 

I  enlisted  the  services  of  Dr.  Claude  B.  Paynter,  of  Salem, 
who  made  most  of  the  measurements  in  the  selective  draft 
for  the  World  war,  and  we  took  the  measurements  of  the 
first  twenty-one  men  of  six  feet  or  more,  that  we  could  get 
at  a  time  when  the  doctor  could  make  the  measurements, 
and  I  append  the  list  with  the  doctor's  measurements  and 
the  weights.  The  names  of  eight  of  these  men  are  set  out 
in  the  foregoing  paper  in  Part  III,  the  remainder  of  them 
have  not  been  mentioned  heretofore. 

All  but  five  of  them  have  passed  the  age  of  maturity — 
thirty  years — and  the  ages  of  these  five  are  given  with  the 
other  data  as  to  them. 

They  are  all  natives  of  the  county  and  all  still  reside  in  the 
county,  except  three,  viz :  George,  Fred  and  John  Morris, 
and  they  grew  to  manhood  here  and  recently  went  to  other 
localities,  and  their  names  are  set  out  here  because  they  are 
a  part  of  a  family  of  five  brothers,  all  over  six  feet. 

The  list  of  names  will  also  bear  out  the  statement  of  the 

writer  that  the  men  whose  names  are  set  out  in  Part  III, 

are  but  a  small  part  of  those  who  might  have  been  given. 

And  still  there  are  many  others  that  might  be  added  to  the 

401 


402  Washington  County  Giants 

list  if  we  would  take  the  time  and  trouble  to  get  them  and 
the  doctor  together  for  the  measurements.  But  this  we 
deem  unnecessary  as  it  was  not  intended  to  name  all  of  the 
class  in  Part  III,  and  will  only  submit  the  following  list: 

Name                                                     Height  Weight            Age 

George  Morris  ]     6-1'  205 

Frank  Morris    I      6-2'  270 

Charles  Morris  \  Brothers   6-1'  215 

John  Morris            6-6'  235 

Fred  Morris     J     6-2'  210 

Matthew  Markland  1       6-4'  240 

William  Markland   f-  Brothers     6-2'  210 

Augustus  Markland  J 6-4^'  265 

Flanders  Denney  ]      6-2'  172 

Claborne  Denney  J  Brothers    6-2'  170 

Silas  Shull  6-4'  220 

Albert   Newby    6-i?4'  250 

Elbert  Smith  6-1'  225 

Ruble  May 6  200 

Lawrence  W.    Paynter    6  215 

Richard  Green    6-5^'  255 

Vance  Spangler    6  160                   20 

Tony  Markland   6-3'  160                   21 

Willie    Wilson     6-6'  185                   24 

Frank  Rodman  6-1'  175                   24 

Charles    Gorman    6  165                   23 

APPENDIX  "B"  (Gould  Statistics) 

Extracts  from  "Investigations  in  the  Military  and  Anthropo- 
logical Statistics  of  American  Soldiers,  by  Benjamin 
Apthorp  Gould,  Actuary  to  the  U.  S.  Sanitary 
Commission,  in  the  Civil  War. 

(P.  118)  The  height  of  full-grown  man  (Note.  From 
his  data,  Doctor  Gould  assumes  that  the  average  man  does 
not  attain  full  growth  until  the  age  of  31)  has  been  the 
subject  of  as  wide  a  diversity  of  statement,  and  seems  as 
completely  undetermined  even  for  any  one  nationality,  as 


Washington  County  Giants  403 

the  law  of  growth  by  which  it  is  attained.  Among  the 
values  given  by  the  principal  investigators  within  the 
author's  knowledge,  the  following  may  be  cited,  all  the 
numbers  being  here  reduced  to  centimeters  and  to  English 
(American)  inches. 

Centimeters  Inches 

Buffon  (mean  value)   169.2  66.60 

Tenon,  from  60  men  between  the  ages  of  25  and  45, 

measured  at  Massy 166.5  65.55 

Quetelet,  from  900  men  enrolled  for  draft  at  Brussels  168.41  66.30 
Quetelet,    from    9,500    Belgian    militia     (province    of 

Brabant)      163.80  64.49 

Quetelet,    from    69    convicts    at    the    penitentiary    of 

Vilvorde     166.40  65.51 

Hargenvilliers,  from  French  conscripts  (20  years  old)  161.50  63.58 
Quetelet,    from    80    students    at    Cambridge,    England 

(measured  in  shoes)    174.21  68.60 

Forbes,  from  Scotch  students  at  Edinburgh  (in  shoes)  173.45  68.30 
Silbermann,      from      559     conscripts     in     one      Paris 

arrondissement    164.34  64.70 

Carus,    "Proportionslehre"    171.20  67.40 

Schadow,  from  his  own  measures  172.60  67.96 

Zeising,  from  his  own  measures  and  Quetelets 173.  68.11 

Liharzik,  from  300  selected  men  in  Vienna 175.  68.90 

Danson,    from   733   Liverpool   prisoners,   aged   25   and 

upwards     168.80  66.46 

Coolidge*,  mean  of  100  U.  S.  soldiers,  natives  of — 

Indiana    175.58  69.125 

Kentucky    17596  69.275 

Ohio    175.37  69.044 

Tennessee    , 176.1 1  69.335 

Maine 174.69  68.777 

Vermont  and  New  Hampshire  173-58  68.341 

Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  173.19  68.185 

North  Carolina   176.22  69.377 

Georgia    177.61  69.926 

South  Carolina    175.00  69.275 

*Statistical  Report  on  Sickness  and  Mortality  of  U.  S.  Army,  years 
1840-56,  p  633.  The  measurements  were  of  100  soldiers,  taken  at  ran- 
dom, in  the  order  of  entry  on  the  Adjutant  General's  books,  from  each 
of  18  states.  Recruits  were  not  accepted  under  65  inches  at  the  time. 
For  discussion  see  Hammond's  "Military  Hygiene,"  p.  29.) 


404  Washington  County  Giants 

Alabama    I757I  69.176 

Virginia   175.22  68.986 

New  York 172.23  67.806 

Pennsylvania    172.99  68.107 

New  Jersey  and  Delaware   172.24  67.81 1 

Maryland     174-13  68.556 

Illinois    175.85  69.235 

Missouri     i74-23  68.594 

Another  of  Coolidge's  tables  gives  a  striking  statement  of  the 
proportion  of  each  100  who  were  over  6  feet  tall.  Of  1,000  men 
measured  in  the  British  army,  only  65  were  6  feet  tall  or  more,  and  in 
the  French  army  only  4.  Of  the  1,800  American  soldiers,  241  were  6 
feet  tall  or  more,  or  over  133  to  1,000,  the  record  by  states  being  as 
follows : 

No.  over  6  feet  Greatest  stature 

Indiana    18  6  feet  4^  in. 

Kentucky  18  6  feet  2>Va  in. 

Ohio    15  6  feet  zlA  in. 

Tennessee    18           .        6  feet  3      in. 

Maine    11  6  feet  2       in. 

Vermont  and  New  Hampshire 6  6  feet  1       in. 

Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  5  6  feet  3      in. 

North    Carolina     24  6  feet  zVa  in. 

Georgia     30  6  feet  6^4  in. 

South  Carolina    15  6  feet  4V2  in. 

Alabama    17  6  feet  4      in. 

Virginia   15  6  feet  2      in. 

New  York 4  6  feet  il/2  in. 

Pennsylvania     5  6  feet  1       in. 

New  Jersey  and  Delaware 6  6  feet  1       in. 

Maryland     9  6  feet  2      in. 

Illinois    17  6  feet  3      in. 

Missouri     8  6  feet  1  Vi  in. 

The  exceeding  wide  range  of  these  data  can  scarcely 
be  accounted  for  by  any  one  influence.  Nor,  indeed,  are 
the  means  afforded  in  most  cases  for  determining  to  what 
extent  the  variations  are  fortuitous,  and  in  what  measure 
they  are  due  to  differences  in  the  classes  of  men  under  con- 
sideration, or  how  far  they  may  be  dependent  upon  the 
employment  of  different  limits  of  age,  in  those  cases  where 
limits  were  regarded. 


Washington  County  Giants  4°5 

Even  for  our  vastly  more  copious  statistics,  the  age  for 
which  the  corresponding  mean  heights  may  be  properly 
used  in  determining  the  full  stature  of  the  average  man, 
remains  somewhat  uncertain.  It  seems  to  be  shown  by 
the  present  investigation  that  these  ages  differ  greatly  for 
different  nationalities,  and  even  for  different  classes  of  the 
same  people.  The  suggestion  of  Villerme  that  the  stature 
is  greater,  and  the  growth  sooner  completed,  all  other 
things  being  equal,  in  proportion  as  the  country  is  richer, 
and  the  comfort  of  its  inhabitants  more  general,  seemed 
from  his  data  quite  plausible;  but  it  is  not  supported  as  a 
general  law  by  the  information  here  collected.  It  was 
based  upon  the  hypothesis  "that  misery,  that  is  to  say  the 
circumstances  which  accompany  it,  diminishes  the  stature 
and  retards  the  epoch  of  complete  development  of  the 
body."  Misery,  in  its  here  intended  sense  of  excessive 
poverty,  affecting  the  supply  of  nutriment,  physical  pro- 
tection from  the  weather,  and  needful  rest,  hardly  exists  in 
the  United  States;  yet  the  epoch  of  full  development  ap- 
pears to  be  later  in  this  than  in  any  other  country.  The 
fact,  however,  that  privations  or  exposure  will  "stunt"  or 
prevent  the  attainment  of  normal  height  is  beyond  ques- 
tion and  appears  to  explain  the  results  obtained  for  sailors, 
as  will  be  mentioned  hereafter. 


Here  follow  a  number  of  tables  giving  measurements,  by  ages  and 
nativities,  of  1,232,256  men,  of  whom  1,104,841  were  white  soldiers, 
83,800  white  sailors,  39,615  colored  soldiers,  and  4,000  colored  sailors. 
From  these  Dr.  Gould  reaches  his  conclusions  that  the  age  of  full 
stature  in  the  United  States  is  30  years,  and  that  "the  well-known 
phenomenon  of  a  decrease  in  height  after  the  age  of  forty-five  or 
fifty  years  exerts  but  a  small  influence." 


406  Washington  County  Giants 

FULL  STATURES,  BY  NATIVITY 

Men  in  Union  Army  and  Navy,  31  years  of  age  and  up. 

No.  Cen- 

Nativity                                                              measured  Inches  timeters 

New  England    33,7^3  68.319  173.63 

New  York,  New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania..  61,351  68.109  173.00 

Ohio  and  Indiana   34,206  68.971  175-19 

Michigan,  Wisconsin  and  Illinois  4,570  68.865  174.86 

Slave  States,  except  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  13,409  68.843  174.86 

Kentucky  and  Tennessee  12.862  69.300  176.02 

British    Provinces    6,667  67.551  171.58 

England    8,899  66.993  170.16 

Scotland    3,478  07.579  171.65 

Ireland    24,149  67.138  170.53 

France,  Belgium  and  Switzerland  3-759  66.697  169.41 

Germany   32,559  66.739  169.51 

Scandinavia    3,790  07 .461  171.35 

Spain  and  Miscellaneous  4,421  66.766  169.58 

A  comparison  of  these  values  can  hardly  fail  to  suggest 
the  suspicion  that  the  full  stature  for  a  given  nativity  may 
be  different  in  the  different  States,  and  this  is  strongly  cor- 
roborated by  the  comparison  of  the  special  nativity  tables 
made  for  the  men  of  each  several  States.  Indeed  the  evi- 
dence thus  obtained  falls  but  little  short  of  demonstration. 

Here  follow  several  tables.  Table  XII  gives  stature  of  natives  of 
New  England  who  enlisted  in  New  England,  as  compared  with  natives 
of  New  England  who  enlisted  in  the  western  States,  and  showing  an 
excess  of  stature  for  the  latter  at  every  age  except  18  years,  the 
average  excess  for  all  being  .19  inches.  Table  XIII  gives  a  similar 
comparison  for  natives  of  New  York,  with  like  results,  the  average 
excess  of  stature  of  those  who  enlisted  in  the  west  being  .49  inches. 
Table  XIV  shows  the  stature  of  natives  of  Ireland  and  Germany  by 
place  of  enlistment,  showing  that  those  of  both  nationalities  who 
enlisted  in  Indiana  averaged  taller  than  those  from  any  other  State 
except  Missouri,  the  average  being  67.268  for  the  Irish  from  Indiana, 
and  67.584  for  those  from  Missouri :  and  66.842  for  the  Germans  from 
Indiana,  and  66.965  for  those  from  Missouri. 

The  adjoining  States  of  Ohio  and  Indiana  have  in  general 
been     considered     together     in     these     investigations,     as 


Washington  County  Giants  407 

"Nativity  C."  Circumstances  led,  however,  to  the  separa- 
tion of  the  natives  of  these  two  States  during  the  assort- 
ment of  about  two-thirds  of  the  Indiana  soldiers.  This  has 
made  it  possible  to  give  the  figures  for  these  soldiers  in  the 
last  table;  and  here  also  a  comparison  of  the  results, 
obtained  from  the  groups  separately,  illustrates  the  same 
principle  which  is  manifested  by  our  other  statistics.  The 
relative  smallness  of  the  difference  between  the  statures  of 
natives  of  these  two  States  might  reasonably  be  supposed 
to  elude  detection  under  the  circumstances,  yet  for  the 
mean  heights  we  find. 

STATURES  OF  NATIVES  OF  OHIO  AND  INDIANA 
ENLISTING  IN  INDIANA 

Age                            Under  21  21-23  24-26  27-30  31-34  35-up. 

Natives   f  Number     18,248  9,200  4,900  3,784  2,017      2,239 

of  Ind.     [Height    67,424  68.628  68.774  68.891  69.095     68.929 

Natives   f  Number    4,962  3,341  2,204  1,93°  1,287       1,882 

of  Ohio  [  Height    67.263  68.456  68.614  68.668  68.865    68.787 

Excess  for  Indiana 161  .172  .160  .223  .230        .142 

(The  average  height  of  the  4,256  Indiana  men  of  31  years  and  up,  is 
69.008  inches;  and  the  average  excess  over  the  Ohio  men  is  .17  inches.) 

From  these  tables  and  other  similar  ones  which  might 
be  formed  from  our  statistics,  the  deduction  is  palpable  that 
agencies  connected  with  the  State  furnishing  the  men  to 
the  National  army  produced  a  decided  effect  upon  the 
stature,  superposed  upon  whatever  other  influences  may 
have  proceeded  from  the  particular  stock  from  which  the 
men  sprang. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  form  conjectures  regarding  the  nature 
of  these  agencies.  A  large  proportion  of  those  enlisting  in 
other  than  their  native  States  had  doubtless  migrated  in 
childhood,    while    their    constitution,    and    especially    their 


408  Washington  County  Giants 

osseous  development,  was  readily  affected  by  external 
influences.  Whether  these  were  climatic,  social,  or  alimen- 
tary, it  is  perhaps  premature  to  discuss  at  present.  That 
residence  in  the  Western  States,  during  the  years  of  growth, 
tends  to  produce  increase  of  stature,  seems  established ;  and 
the  indications  are  strong  that  the  same  is  the  case  with 
many  of  the  Southern  states.  It  would  moreover  appear 
that  those  States  which  show  for  their  natives  the  highest 
statures,  are  those  which  tend  most  strongly  to  increase 
the  stature  of  those  who  remove  thither  during  the  period 
of  development.  The  westward  course  of  population  pre- 
cludes any  trustworthy  inferences  regarding  the  converse 
of  this  statement.  And  furthermore,  it  is  evident  that  the 
relative  stature  for  different  States  follows  no  manifest 
geographical  law. 

The  suggestion  that  calcareous  districts,  by  furnishing  a 
more  abundant  and  continuous  supply  of  lime  for  the  bones 
while  growing,  promote  their  development,  and  thus  tend 
to  increase  the  stature,  seems  to  afford  a  partial  explanation 
for  this  phenomenon ;  but  it  gives  by  no  means  a  complete 
solution  of  the  problem,  for  the  variations  of  stature  are  not 
by  any  means  proportionate  to  the  amounts  of  calcareous 
formations  near  the  surface  of  the  soil.  Thus  the  marked 
differences  in  the  average  statures  of  the  natives  between 
Maine  and  New  Hampshire,  and  between  Vermont  and 
New  York,  cannot  be  accounted  for  on  this  theory. 

P.  131.  We  may  sum  up  many  of  our  general  inferences 
regarding  the  full  stature  in  a  few  closing  sentences.  That 
the  stature  of  a  population  is  not  in  ordinary  cases  affected 
by  the  temperature  of  the  region  which  it  inhabits,  as  was 
supposed  by  Buffon,  may  be  regarded  as  established  by  the 
small  influence  which  the  latitude  appears  to  exert.     The 


Washington  County  Giants  409 

statistics  here  collected  show  how  slight  any  such  influence 
must  be  within  the  territory  of  the  United  States;  for  the 
differences  of  stature  here  seem  altogether  independent  of 
climatic  agencies,  as  will  be  perceived  from  a  very  cursory 
inspection  of  Table  XL  For  South  America  the  same  fact 
is  established  by  the  researches  of  D'Orbigny,  who  espe- 
cially discards  the  theory  with  emphatic  repetition.  For 
Europe  the  non-dependence  of  stature  upon  latitude  is  too 
well  known  to  require  illustration,  and  although  there  is  a 
wide  diversity  between  the  statures  of  the  Latin  and  the 
Teutonic  races,  it  is  in  the  direction  opposite  to  that  which 
this  theory  implies. 

That  stature  is  not  a  distinctive  characteristic  of  nation- 
ality is  demonstrated  with  equal  certainty  by  these  statis- 
tics. Our  tables  XII  to  XV  show  incontestably  the  agency 
of  some  local  influence,  by  exhibiting  the  difference  in 
stature  between  men  of  the  same  stock  and  nativity  reared 
in  different  States.  The  same  conclusion  was  forced  upon 
D'Orbigy  by  his  South  American  investigations,  and  the 
statistics  of  conscription  in  France  and  Prussia  also  make 
this  truth  manifest  by  showing  the  wide  diversity  in  the 
mean  stature  of  men  of  the  same  race,  and  born  in  districts 
by  no  means  remote  from  each  other. 

That  the  stature  depends  in  any  controlling  degree  upon 
the  domestic  circumstances  of  a  population,  as  affected  by 
abundance  or  need  of  the  comforts  of  life,  according  to  the 
opinion  of  Villerme,  can  scarcely  be  maintained  after  con- 
sideration of  the  facts  here  presented,  although  the  effects 
of  privation  or  exposure  upon  the  physical  growth  are 
doubtless  recognizable. 

That  the  stature  is  chiefly  affected  by  the  elevation  of 
the   districts   inhabited,  as   suggested  by   D'Orbigny,  who 


410  Washington  County  Giants 

attributes  the  supposed  inferior  stature  in  mountainous 
regions  to  the  prolonged  influence  of  a  rarefied  atmosphere, 
seems  equally  untenable.  Among  the  tallest  men  of  Ken- 
tucky, Tennessee  and  West  Virginia  are  the  dwellers  upon 
the  slopes  of  the  Alleghanies;  the  Green  Mountains  of 
Vermont  furnish  a  race  of  men  among  the  tallest  in  all  the 
New  England  States;  yet  on  the  other  hand  the  prairies 
and  level  fields  of  Indiana  and  Illinois  afford  a  population  of 
preeminent  stature.  The  tallest  men  of  France  inhabit  the 
slopes  of  the  Jura. 

That  all  the  influences  here  considered — climate,  nation- 
ality, comfort,  elevation — may  contribute  in  some  measure 
to  affect  the  stature  is  more  than  probable ;  that  both  ances- 
tral and  local  influences  are  recognizable  is  certain.  And 
although  we  cannot  succeed  in  determining  what  is  the 
chief  agent,  it  may  not  be  without  value  that  we  furnish 
evidence  of  what  is  not. 

(Following  this,  Doctor  Gould  gives  a  number  of  tables  and  quota- 
tions as  to  seamen,  negroes,  and  various  races.  His  table  shows 
American  sailors  at  age  of  full  stature  ranging  from  66.778  for  those 
of  New  England  to  67.765  for  those  from  the  northwestern  States. 
Colored  soldiers  from  the  free  States  averaged  67.056,  and  those  from 
the  slave  States  67.143.  Colored  sailors  averaged  66.337  for  the  free 
States  and  66.641  for  the  Slave  States.  Measurements  of  500  Iroquois 
Indians  showed  an  average  full  stature  of  68.665  inches.  The  senior 
and  junior  classes  at  Harvard  and  Yale  averaged  from  67.467  at  17  years 
of  age  to  69.180  at  27  years.  The  smallest  men  appear  to  be  the 
Eskimos,  who  are  reported  at  130  centimeters.  Patagonians,  who  are 
frequently  spoken  of  as  "giants,"  were  found  by  D'Orbigny  to  average 
68.1  inches;  and  Doctor  Gould  says:  "A  probable  explanation  of  the 
exaggerated  accounts  of  the  stature  of  this  really  tall  race  of  men  is 
given  by  D'Orbigny,  who  says  that  the  breadth  of  their  shoulders,  their 
bare  heads,  and  the  manner  in  which  they  drape  themselves  from  head 
to  foot  in  the  skins  of  wild  animals,  produce  such  an  illusion,  that  his 
own  party  had  attributed  to  them  an  excessive  stature,  before  any 
actual  comparison  or  measurement  became  possible."  Of  unusually  tall 
men,  Doctor  Gould  found  3,613  who  measured  75  inches  or  more  in 
those  measured,  and  of  these  598  were  enlisted  in  Indiana.     This  was 


Washington   County  Giants 


411 


the  largest  number  of  men  from  any  one  State,  but  the  proportion  in 
100,000  men  was  smaller  than  for  Kentucky,  Wisconsin,  Minnesota  and 
Missouri.     He  proceeds — ) 

During  the  investigation  of  the  correctness  of  the  records 
for  cases  of  extreme  height,  a  very  considerable  number  of 
similar  cases  among  the  earlier  volunteers  were  brought  to 
our  knowledge;  and  it  seems  probable  that  the  proportion 
of  very  tall  men,  among  the  troops  whose  descriptive  mus- 
ters are  not  on  file,  was  at  least  not  inferior  to  that  among 
the  later  enlistments  from  which  our  statistics  are  neces- 
sarily derived. 

Among  our  own  data  fifty-one  cases  of  stature,  not  less 
than  eighty  inches,  were  recorded ;  but  many  of  these  were 
found  to  be  erroneous  on  special  investigation.  Great  exer- 
tions were  made  to  obtain  information  regarding  others, 
who  are  recorded  as  follows  on  the  official  musters : 

Regiment  Height 

Unassigned    Main    Infantry 80 

7th  Vermont   Infantry 80 

128th   New  York  Infantry 81 

100th    Ohio    Infantry 84 

169th    Ohio    Infantry 80 

29th   Indiana   Infantry 8o}4 

59th   Indiana   Infantry 83 

59th   Indiana   Infantry 83^ 

81st    Indiana   Infantry 80^2 

89th   Indiana   Infantry 82 

153d    Indiana    Infantry 83 

1st   Indiana   Artillery 80 

31st   Illinois   Infantry 8ij4 

106th  Illinois  Infantry 83 

109th  Illinois  Infantry 80 

149th    Illinois    Infantry 83H 

Unassigned    Illinois    Infantry 80 

Unassigned   Illinois  Infantry 83 

Unassigned    Illinois    Infantry 80 

nth    Michigan   Cavalry 80 

1st    Michigan    Artillery 81 J4 

8th    Wisconsin    Infantry 80 

46th  Wisconsin  Infantry 80 

46th    Wisconsin    Infantry 80 

26th  Missouri  Infantry 84 


ht 

Age 

Place  of  Birth 

in. 

26 

Maine 

n. 

40 

Vermont 

in. 

21 

Ireland 

in. 

22 

New    York 

in. 

37 

Ireland 

in. 

20 

Ohio 

m. 

30 

Indiana 

in. 

38 

Indiana 

in. 

23 

Indiana 

n. 

24 

Ohio 

n. 

25 

Ohio 

n. 

3i 

Kentucky 

in. 

21 

Tennessee 

n. 

25 

Illinois 

in. 

22 

Illinois 

in. 

18 

Ohio 

n. 

18 

Illinois 

n. 

20 

Illinois 

n. 

20 

Illinois 

n. 

22 

New    York 

in. 

20 

Michigan 

in. 

20 

New    York 

m. 

39 

Norway 

n. 

39 

New   York 

n. 

28 

Pennsylvania 

412  Washington  County  Giants 

The  tallest  man  for  whose  stature  the  testimony  is  com- 
plete and  unimpeachable,  is  Lieutenant  VanBuskirk,  of  the 
Twenty-seventh  Indiana  Infantry.  General  Silas  Colgrove, 
formerly  colonel  of  that  regiment,  writes  that  he  has  fre- 
quently seen  him  measured,  and  that  his  stature  was  fully 
eighty-two  and  one-half  inches,  without  shoes,  or  209  cen- 
timeters. General  Colgrove  adds  that  he  was  a  brave  man, 
and  bore  the  fatigue  of  marching  as  well  as  most  men  of 
ordinary  stature. 

Corporal  Ira  Stout,  of  the  Fiftieth  Indiana  Infantry,  Com- 
pany E,  was  twenty-four  years  of  age,  and  eighty-one  inches 
high  (205.7  centimeters)  at  the  date  of  his  enlistment, 
September,  1861.  He  was  born  in  Ohio  county,  Indiana, 
was  a  farmer  by  occupation,  had  blue  eyes,  light  hair  and 
fair  complexion.  This  information  is  corroborated  by 
Captain  Percy  Rous,  his  commanding  officer,  who  states 
that  the  man  was  soon  discharged  on  account  of  disability, 
and  had  done  but  little  marching  at  the  time. 

Colonel  Gregory,  of  the  Twenty-ninth  Indiana  Infantry, 
has  obtained  for  us,  precise  information  from  Captain 
Charles  Ream,  of  Company  K,  concerning  one  of  his  men, 
for  whom  he  confirms  the  record.  The  somewhat  inappro- 
priate name  of  this  man  was  John  Bunch ;  he  was  born  in 
Ohio,  and  at  his  enlistment,  September,  1861,  was  twenty 
years  old,  eighty  and  one-half  inches  tall  (204.5  cen" 
timeters),  by  occupation  a  farmer,  with  hazel  eyes,  light 
hair,  and  light  complexion.  He  was  a  notorious  skulker, 
was  never  with  the  regiment  in  a  single  battle,  and  deserted 
in  August,  1862.  He  was  known  in  the  regiment  as  the 
"United  States  Ramrod." 

Colonel  M.  W.  Tappan,  of  the  First  New  Hampshire 
Infantry  (three  months  regiment),  believes  our  information 


Washington  County  Giants  413 

to  be  correct  in  the  case  of  Joseph  H.  Harris,  of  that  regi- 
ment, also  eighty  and  one-half  inches  (204.5  centimeters) 
in  height,  aged  twenty-six  years,  born  in  Vermont,  by  occu- 
pation a  mechanic,  eyes  blue,  hair  brown,  complexion  dark. 

Captain  J.  B.  Redfield,  formerly  commanding  Company 
A  of  the  Eighth  Wisconsin  Volunteers,  vouches  for  the 
record  concerning  a  man  in  that  company,  Andrew  J. 
Sanders,  who  was  born  in  New  York,  and  was,  at  his 
enlistment,  twenty  years  old,  and  eighty  inches  (203.2  cen- 
timeters) in  height. 

These  are  the  five  tallest  men  whose  cases  are  well 
identified,  but  only  two  of  them,  Bunch  and  Sanders,  are 
included  in  our  tables.  The  circumstances  that  three  of 
them  are  from  Indiana  may  be  perhaps  explained  by  the 
especially  careful  inquiries  which  were  made  in  that  State, 
on  account  of  the  high  average  stature  of  its  inhabitants. 
The  testimony  is  overwhelming  that  very  tall  men  do 
not  bear  the  fatigue  of  a  campagin  so  well  as  persons  of 
ordinary  stature;  that  they  are  less  capable  of  performing 
long  marches,  and  are  more  frequently  on  the  sick  list 
at  other  times. 

APPENDIX  "C"  (Baxter  Statistics) 

Extracts  from  statistics,  medical  and  anthropological,  of 
the  Provost  Marshal-General's  Bureau,  Washington,  1875. 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  Civil  war,  the  proportion  of 
disabilities  from  disease  occasioned  precautions  for  stricter 
medical  examinations  for  soldiers;  and  on  January  11,  1864, 
the  "Medical  Bureau  of  the  Provost  Marshal-General's 
office"  was  organized.  This  took  over  the  biometrical 
work,  and  examined  605,045  drafted  men,  of  whom  155,730 
were   rejected ;   225,369  volunteers,  of  whom   50,008  were 


414  Washington  County  Giants 

rejected;  and  79,968  substitutes,  of  whom  21,125  were 
rejected.  In  1866  an  appropriation  was  made  for  compil- 
ing these  statistics,  which  work  was  completed  and  pub- 
lished in  1875,  under  the  supervision  of  Dr.  J.  H.  Baxter, 
These  figures  cover  in  part  those  used  by  Doctor  Gould, 
but  are  limited  to  501,068  measurements  that  had  "exact 
records,"  and  of  these  315,620  were  of  American-born 
whites. 

Doctor  Baxter  added  a  large  amount  of  information  as 
to  statistics  of  other  countries,  and  especially  as  to  the  min- 
imum stature  prescribed  for  soldiers.  This  has  vaned  at 
different  times.  The  lowest  recorded  for  the  ancient 
Romans  was  sixty-three  inches,  of  our  measure;  but  under 
the  Emperor  Valentinian,  the  minimum  was  raised  to  65.55 
inches,  and  the  soldiers  of  the  First  Legionary  Cohort  were 
required  to  be  at  least  70.3  inches.  In  France,  Louis  XIV 
ordained  a  minimum  of  63.938  inches.  During  the  Napo- 
leonic wars  this  was  dropped  to  60.788,  and  after  slight 
changes,  was  fixed  by  law  in  1872,  at  60,631.  In  the  United 
States,  the  minimum  was  established  in  1790  at  sixty-six 
inches,  and  has  usually  been  near  that,  though  it  was 
dropped  to  sixty  inches  in  1864,  which,  of  course,  reduced 
the  averages  thereafter. 

There  are  two  of  Doctor  Baxter's  tables  that  are  of 
especial  interest  here.  .  One  is  his  comparison  by  States 
with  Doctor  Gould's  figures;  but  in  this  he  uses  the  aver- 
ages for  all  ages  in  both,  and  not  the  age  of  "full  stature" 
(31  years  and  up)  that  is  used  in  Doctor  Gould's  table  given 
above.  The  other  is  the  average  by  congressional  districts, 
which  shows  startling  results  for  Indiana,  the  extreme 
variation   between   the   districts  being   1.346   inches.      The 


Washington  County  Giants  415 

enlistments  at  that  time  were  by  districts  composed  as 
follows : 

First.  Counties  of  Daviess,  Gibson,  Dubois,  Knox,  Mar- 
tin, Pike,  Posey,  Spencer,  Vanderburgh,  and  Warrick;  head- 
quarters, Evansville. 

Second.  Clarke,  Crawford,  Floyd,  Orange,  Harrison, 
Scott,  Washington,  and  Perry;  headquarters,  Jeffersonville. 

Third.  Bartholomew,  Brown,  Jackson,  Jennings,  Jeffer- 
son, Lawrence,  Monroe,  and  Switzerland ;  headquarters,  Co- 
lumbus. 

Fourth.  Dearborn,  Decatur,  Franklin,  Ohio,  Ripley,  and 
Rush;  headquarters,  Greensburg. 

Fifth.  Delaware,  Fayette,  Henry,  Union,  Randolph  and 
Wayne;  headquarters,  Richmond. 

Sixth.  Hancock,  Hendricks,  Johnson,  Marion,  Morgan, 
and  Shelby;  headquarters,  Indianapolis. 

Seventh.  Clay,  Greene,  Owen,  Parke,  Putnam,  Sullivan, 
Vermilion,  and  Vigo;  headquarters,  Terre  Haute. 

Eighth.  Boone,  Carroll,  Clinton,  Fountain,  Tippecanoe, 
Montgomery  and  Warren ;  headquarters,  Lafayette. 

Ninth.  Benton,  Cass,  Fulton,  Jasper,  Lake,  Laporte, 
Marshall,  Pulaski,  Miami,  Porter,  Starke,  St.  Joseph,  White, 
and  Newton;  headquarters,  Laporte. 

Tenth.  Allen,  DeKalb,  Elkhart,  Kosciusko,  Noble, 
LaGrange,  Steuben,  and  Whitney;  headquarters,  Kendall- 
ville. 

Eleventh.  Adams,  Blackford,  Wells,  Grant,  Howard, 
Hamilton,  Huntington,  Tipton,  Jay,  Madison  and  Wabash; 
headquarters,  Wabash. 

Doctor  Baxter's  tables  follow,  with  an  extract  of  his  dis- 
cussion of  the  causes  of  variations. 


416 


Washington  County  Giants 


MEAN    STATURE    OF    AMERICAN    BORN,    WHITE,    UNION 

SOLDIERS 

Dr. 
State  No.  Men 

Kentucky  and  Tennessee   4,252 

Kansas    729 

Minnesota    3,682 

Missouri    6,031 

California     1,308 

Nevada    21 

Indiana    38,354 

West  Viriginia  5,187 

Wisconsin     10,922 

Maine    12,363 

Iowa     7,823 

Illinois     36,465 

Michigan    12,583 

Maryland    6,918 

Ohio     39,3H 

Vermont   3,374 

Delaware    1,215 

Pennsylvania    47,124 

District  of  Columbia 2,883 

Rhode  Island    3,013 

New  York  43,798 

New  Jersey   1 7,084 

New   Hampshire    2,801 

Massachusetts     6,280 

Connecticut    2,009 


Baxter 

Dr.  Gould 

Height 

Height 

Inches 

Inches 

68.677 

68.160 

68.551 

68.371 

67.625 

68.337 

68.033 

68,306 

68.286 

68.080 

68.062 

68.005 

68.425 

67.911 

67.652 

67.895 

68.122 

67.895 

68.131 

67,835 

67.970 

67.826 

67.615 

67.814 

67.312 

67.782 

67.838 

67.583 

67.613 

67.490 

67.470 

67.136 

67.353 

67.290 

67.088 

67.274 

67.085 

67.023 

66.575 

66.929 

67.402 

66.891 

67.050 

66.587 

67.088 

MEAN  STATURE  OF  38,354  INDIANA  MEN  IN  UNION  ARMY. 
BY  CONGRESSIONAL  DISTRICTS 


District 


Number 


Second    2,1 12 

Third    1,709 

First    3,224 

Eleventh    3,404 

Ninth    4,781 

Seventh    4,810 

Fourth    2,307 

Fifth     3,028 

Tenth    3,171 

Sixth     5,097 


Av.  Height 
Inches 
68.916 
68.407 
68.315 
68.303 
68.302 
68.289 
68.080 
67.912 
67.808 
67.660 


Washington   County  Giants  4*7 

Eighth    4,7i  i  67.570 

Total    38,354  Average  68.080 

(The  average  for  the  United  States  was  67.672.  Doctor  Baxter  con- 
curs with  Doctor  Gould  in  the  belief  that  the  earlier  enlistments  in 
the  Civil  war  averaged  taller  than  these.) 

CAUSES  OF  STATURE,  AND  PERIOD  OF  FULL 

STATURE. 


P.  16.  "A  striking  peculiarity  will  be  noticed  in  the 
height  of  foreigners  in  the  following  tables.  In  every 
instance,  this  height  will  be  found  greater  than  the  mean 
stature  ascribed  to  the  nation  represented.  In  like  manner, 
emigrants  from  the  Eastern  to  the  Western  States  exhibit 
a  stature  superior  to  that  of  the  residents  of  their  native 
States.  Mr.  Gould  observes  that  men  born  in  New  England, 
but  enlisting  from  the  West,  were  found  to  have  a  mean 
height  varying  from  0.380  inch  to  0.340  inch,  according  to 
age,  in  excess  of  the  mean  height  of  the  volunteers  from 
New  England  itself. 

"The  cause  of  this  superior  height  in  those  who  have  left 
their  native  country  has  been  much  debated.  Mr.  Gould 
suggests,  in  the  case  of  men  removing  at  an  early  age  from 
the  East  to  the  West,  that  the  greater  abundance  of  food 
might  have  produced  this  excess.  It  is  true  that  the  fertile 
lands  of  the  West  produce  more  abundant  harvests,  but  it  is 
not  likely  that  the  supply  of  sufficient  food  to  the  young 
varies  in  any  important  degree  in  the  United  States. 
Besides,  the  same  peculiar  difference  is  observed  to  exist 
in  the  cases  of  men  who  have  migrated  from  one  western 
State  to  another,  so  that  the  reason  assigned  is  clearly 
unsatisfactory.  It  has  also  been  argued  that  the  prevalence 
of  Cretaceous  formation  in   the  geology  of  the  West,  by 


418  Washington  County  Giants 

furnishing  a  more  liberal  supply  of  lime  for  the  bones  of  the 
growing  youth,  accounts  for  the  phenomenon  of  his  greater 
stature.  Although  a  deficiency  of  this  material  may  pre- 
vent hardening,  and  result  in  curvature  of  the  long  bones, 
there  is  no  proof  that  a  superabundant  supply  would 
increase  their  normal  length.  The  natives  of  Maine,  New 
Hampshire,  and  Vermont,  contiguous  States,  not  varying 
greatly  in  geological  character,  display  marked  differences 
in  mean  stature.  The  suggestion  has  also  been  made  that 
men  who  leave  their  native  soil  to  seek  fortune  in  other 
lands  are  corporeally  superior  specimens  of  their  race;  but 
it  is  yet  to  be  shown  that  enterprise  and  ambition  depend 
upon  stature,  and  not  on  qualities  of  mind.  It  would,  how- 
ever, be  of  great  service  to  this  branch  of  statistics  if  a 
record  were  to  be  accurately  kept  of  the  height,  weight  and 
age  of  all  male  immigrants  landing  in  New  York. 

"After  all,  the  true  explanation  of  this  curious  fact  is 
probably  to  be  found  in  the  difference  of  age  of  the  men 
examined.  The  height  of  soldiers  in  all  European  countries, 
excepting  in  Great  Britain,  is  recorded  at  the  period  of 
their  conscription,  and  this  occurs  from  their  eighteenth  to 
their  twentieth  year.  It  is  indisputably  established  that 
height  continues  to  increase  very  perceptibly  up  to  the 
twenty-fifth  year;  full  growth,  indeed,  not  being  completed 
until  later.  Now  the  lowest  mean  age  to  be  found  in  Tables 
Nos.  4  to  9,  inclusive,  is  25.248  years,  and  the  mean  age  of 
the  six  nativities  represented  in  them  is  27.319  years.  The 
comparisons,  then,  have  all  the  time  been  made  of  grown 
men,  twenty-five  years  old  and  upward,  with  lads  of  nine- 
teen. According  to  Quetelet's  tables  of  growth,  the  mean 
height  at  nineteen  years  is  1.655  metres,  and  at  twenty-five 
years  it  is  1,682  metres — a  difference  of  2.7  centimetres,  or 


Washington   County  Giants  419 

1.063  inches.  Our  tables  show  the  mean  height  at  nineteen 
years  to  be  67.07  inches,  and  at  twenty-five  years  to  be 
68.05  inches. 

"The  age  announced  by  other  authorities  as  that  of  com- 
pleted growth  varies  considerably.  In  France,  Bernard 
gives  it  as  the  thirty-second  year;  Champouillon  from  the 
twenty-third  to  the  twenty-eighth ;  Baron  Larrey,  the  twen- 
ty-eighth ;  and  Allaire,  from  the  thirty-first  to  the  thirty- 
fifth  year.  In  Belgium,  Quetelet  decides  for  the  thirtieth, 
and  in  Switzerland  M.  Dunant  for  the  twenty-sixth  year. 
Liharzik,  in  Vienna,  and  in  England,  Aitken,  Danson  and 
Boyd  regard  the  twenty-fifth  as  the  year  of  matured  growth. 
Doctor  Beddoe  selects  the  twenty-third  year,  though  he 
admits  a  slight  increase  after  that  age." 

APPENDIX  "D" 

EXTRACTS  FROM  ADJUTANT  TERRELL'S 
REPORT,  1869 
P.  no,  Vol.  1.  Document  No.  14. 

Height  and  Ages  of  Indiana  Soldiers. 
Exhibit  showing  the  height  and  ages  of  118,254  Indiana 
soldiers  in  the  United  States  service,  War  of  the  Rebellion. 
(There  is  no  record  of  the  descriptions  of  about  88,000 
soldiers  from  this  State.) 

Document  No.  15 
NATIVITY  OF  INDIANA  SOLDIERS 


Height 

No 

.  of  Men 

Age — Years        No.  of  Men. 

Under    61    inches 

50i 

Under    17    years                   270 

At  61  inches 

293 

At  17  years                      634 

At  62  inches 

971 

At.  18  years                 21,935 

At  63  inches 

2,503 

At  19  years                10,519 

At  64  inches 

5,387 

At  20  years                  9,435 

420 


Washington  County  Giants 


At  65  inches  9,171  At  21  years  9,705 

At  66  inches  14,373  At  22  years  7,835 

At  67  inches  15,328  At  23  years  6,789 

At  68  inches  19,140  At  24  years  6,013 

At  69  inches  I5,472  At  25  years  4,891 

At  70  inches  I5,<>47  At  26  years  4,283 

At  71  inches  8,706  At  27  years  3,738 

At  72  inches  6,679  At  28  years  3,929 

At  73  inches  2,614  At  29  years  2,769 

At  74  inches  i,357  At  30  years  3,001 

At  75  inches  409  31  to  34  years  8,391 

Over  75  inches  336  35  years  and  over  14,127 

Total  reported  118,254  Total  reported  118,254 

(In  a  note  to  this  table,  Gen.  Terrell  gives  an  extract  from  a  private 
letter  to  him  from  Dr.  B.  A.  Gould,  saying:  "One  thing  will  certainly 
interest  you — that  it  is  evident,  from  our  statistics,  that  the  Indiana 
men  are  the  tallest  of  all  natives  of  the  United  States,  and  these 
latter  the  tallest  of  al  civilized  countries."  Dr.  Gould  modified  this 
later,  as  quoted  above.) 

Place  of  birth  Number 

Indiana    58,294 

Ohio     22,91 1 

New    York,    New    Jersey   and    Pennsylvania.. 9,228 

Kentucky  and  Tennessee   7,677 

Other  Slave  States  5,947 

Michigan,  Illinois  and  Wisconsin    2,124 

New  England  States   902 

Other  Free  States  146 

Total  American  born 107,139 

Germany     5,242 

Ireland    2,983 

England    1,084 

Foreign  countries  not  designated  948 

Canada    61  r 

Scotland    245 

Total  Foreign  born  11,115 

Grand  Total    1 18,254 

(The  total  number  over  6  feet  tall,  in  the  above  measurements  is 
11,392  or  nearly  10  per  cent.  At  page  240  Gen.  Terrell  gives  the 
average  height  of  38,850  "drafted  men,  recruits  and  substitutes,  natives 
of  the  United  States,  and  citizens  of  Indiana,"  at  5  feet,  7.28  inches.) 


Washington  County  Giants  421 

APPENDIX  "E" 
(Non-official  information) 

Extracts  from  History  of  Twenty-Seventh  Indiana  Vol- 
unteer Infantry,  by  Edmund  R.  Brown,  of  Company  C, 
later  Department  Commander  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic, 
Indiana. 

P.  21.  "As  to  nativity,  the  majority  of  the  Twenty-sev- 
enth were  simply  Western  conglomerates.  At  least  ninety 
per  cent,  of  the  officers  and  men,  if  not  more,  were  Ameri- 
can born.  But,  while  a  few  of  them  were  descendants  of 
that  band  of  numerous  progeny — the  original  freightage  of 
the  Mayflower — and  of  other  early  settlers  of  the  Colonies, 
many  of  them  were  of  the  third  or  second,  or  even  of  the 
first  generation,  born  this  side  of  the  Atlantic.  If  some  of 
us  proudly  claimed  a  strain  of  Puritan  or  Cavalier  blood  in 
our  veins,  it  had  undeniably  been  crossed  with  German  and 
Low  Dutch,  Scotch  and  Irish,  until  it  was  impossible  to 
decide  which  now  predominated,  and  few  cared  about  it 
anyway.  *  *  *  One  of  our  companies  had  such  a  pre- 
ponderance of  German-speaking  men  in  it  that  we  called 
it  our  "Dutch  Koompany."  Yet  most  of  these  young  men 
who  spoke  the  English  language  brokenly,  had  been  born  in 
the  United  States,  and,  in  some  instances,  their  fathers 
before  them  had  been.  With  them,  in  the  same  company, 
were  also  men  not  of  German  descent,  and,  along  with  the 
rest,  were  three  or  four  genuine  Hibernians,  rather  recent 
arrivals.  All  of  the  companies  had  more  or  less  of  these 
'sprigs  of  the  Emerald  Isle.'     *     *     * 

"A  characteristic  of  the  Twenty-seventh  that  often  at- 
tracted attention  was  the  large  proportion  of  tall  men  which 


422  Washington  County  Giants 

it  contained.  It  is  generally  known  that  we  had  with  us 
the  tallest  man  in  the  entire  United  States  army.  This  has 
been  definitely  settled.  Capt.  David  Buskirk  stood  full  six 
feet  eleven  and  one-half  inches  in  his  stockings.  It  was 
the  plan,  at  first  that  his  company  should  be  composed 
wholly  of  men  six  feet  tall  or  over.  Though  this  was  found 
impracticable,  the  company  still  had  in  it,  at  the  start, 
eighty  men  of  that  class. 

"It  would  be  safe  to  say  that  the  other  companies  aver- 
aged at  least  fifty  six-footers  each.  Some  quite  short  men 
(or  boys)  brought  the  average  down  considerably;  but  the 
matter  of  our  unusual  average  height  was  the  subject  of 
frequent  remark,  particularly  in  the  early  part  of  our  ser- 
vice. 

"And  we  measured  well,  in  comparison  with  others,  in 
at  least  one  other  respect.  In  that  respect  we  exceeded 
some  others  by  many  feet.  Quartermaster-sergeant  Crose 
often  referred  to  his  comical,  though  laborious,  experiences 
in  supplying  the  men  with  shoes  that  were  large  enough  for 
them.  Each  time  he  drew  shoes,  it  was  necessary  for  him 
to  bundle  up  the  fives  and  sixes  and  go  around  among  the 
neighboring  regiments  and  exchange  them  for  nines  and 
tens.  For  this  purpose,  the  Ninth  New  York  and  Twenty- 
ninth  Pennsylvania  were  his  favorite  resorts,  while  they 
remained  in  the  Brigade.  They  contained  mostly  city-bred 
men,  with  diminutive  pedal  extremities. 

"On  the  point  of  the  average  age  of  the  men  of  the 
Twenty-Seventh,  it  is  more  difficult  to  speak,  in  the 
enforced  absence  of  the  figures.  The  opinion  has  been 
expressed  that  the  average  was  higher  than  in  most  other 
regiments.  The  writer  does  not  concur  in  that  opinion. 
The  fact  that  our  men  had  been  so  generally  accustomed 


Washington  County  Giants  423 

to  out-door  life  and  to  physical  labor,  may  have  given  them 
an  older  appearance  than  if  the  contrary  had  been  true. 
Anyway,  the  few  known  facts  at  hand  and  the  general 
impression  as  it  is  recalled,  seems  to  the  writer  to  be  con- 
clusive that  the  Twenty-seventh  was  below,  rather  than 
above,  the  average  age.  At  all  events  the  average  could 
not  have  been  high. 

COMPANY  F 

P.  596.  "This  company  was  peculiar  at  the  start  in  at 
least  three  respects.  First,  it  had  three  very  tall  men  for 
commissioned  officers;  two  of  them  being  the  tallest  men 
in  the  regiment,  and  one  being  the  tallest  in  the  Union 
army.  Secondly,  it  had  more  tall  men  than  any  other  com- 
pany in  the  Twenty-seventh.  Thirdly,  the  homes  of  its 
members  were  the  most  widely  scattered  over  the  State. 

"Company  F  was  frequently  called  'The  New  Albany 
Railroad  Company.'  It  was  also  twitted  good  humoredly 
as  hailing  from  between  the  two  State's  prisons.  New 
Albany  and  Michigan  City,  at  opposite  extremes  of  Indiana, 
almost  three  hundred  miles  apart,  were  represented  in  the 
company,  as  well  as  many  of  the  towns  between  them.  The 
prominent  reason  for  this  was  that  several  of  the  company 
had  been  employes  of  the  railroad  (the  Monon)  connecting 
these  two  points. 

"An  officer  of  such  giant-like  stature  as  Lieutenant 
(afterward  Captain)  Van  Buskirk  could  not  fail  to  invest  a 
company  with  some  special  interest.  This  is  still  more  evi- 
dent when  it  is  remembered  that  in  his  disposition  and 
habits  he  was  almost  as  different  from  others  as  in  his 
stature.  He  was  remarkable  for  his  simple,  unaffected  and 
kindly  ways.     He  was  always  approachable,  to  everybody 


424  Washington  County  Giants 

and  he  had  no  hesitancy  in  approaching  others.  A  major- 
general  was  no  more  to  him  than  a  private  soldier.  Owing 
to  his  absolute  sincerity  and  utter  absence  of  asperity,  as 
much  as  to  his  size,  no  one  ever  took  offence  at  anything 
he  said." 

Extract  from  Bloomington  Republican,  July  13,  1861. 

"RECRUITING.  Peter  Kopp  and  several  other  gentle- 
men of  this  place  are  raising  a  company  of  grenadiers  for 
the  United  States  service.  They  admit  no  recruits  under 
five  feet  ten  inches,  and  equally  stout  and  able-bodied.  We 
pity  the  rebel  upon  whose  neck  the  foot  of  'Big  Pete'  shall 
come  down  with  a  vengeance.  There  will  be  no  chance  for 
him  to  even  say  his  prayers  before  his  life  is  crushed  out  of 
him.  Some  of  the  others  engaged  in  raising  the  company 
are  among  our  most  athletic  citizens.  Their  recruiting 
office,  we  believe,  is  at  Williams  &  Sluss  livery  stables." 

EXTRACTS   FROM   INDIANAPOLIS   PAPERS. 

The  following  items  concerning  Company  F,  indicate  that  the  repor- 
torial  forces  of  Indianapolis  were  nearly  "swamped"  by  the  rapid 
arrivals  of  volunteers  at  the  beginning  of  the  war ;  and  also  that  the 
incoming  soldiers  were  at  times  disposed  to  "have  fun"  with  the 
reporters. 

"The  Monroe  County  Grenadiers,  Captain  B.  Pete, 
arrived  yesterday,  and  will  go  into  camp  at  Camp  Morton." 
Sentinel,  August  8,  1861. 

"A  COMPANY  OF  SIX-FOOTERS.  Captain  Kopp,  a 
gentleman  who  has  seen  service  in  Napoleon's  wars,  arrived 
in  the  city  yesterday  with  a  company  of  six-footers  that  he 
had  recruited  for  the  United  States  service.    Captain  Kopp, 


Washington  County  Giants  425 

with  his  corps,  went  into  camp  at  Camp  Morton  and  he 
will  immediately  enter  upon  the  business  of  drilling  them 
so  that  they  may  be  ready  to  answer  as  soldiers  should  at 
the  call  of  their  country. "    Sentinel,  August  13. 

"MONROE  COUNTY  GRENADIERS.  A  few  days 
ago  a  company  of  'six-footers'  arrived  in  this  city  from 
Monroe  county  and  went  into  camp.  The  company  is 
composed  of  the  largest  men  we  have  seen  from  any  section 
of  the  State.  The  second  lieutenant  is  a  'whale,'  but  some 
of  the  others  are  whales,  too,  but  a  trifle  smaller.  The  fol- 
lowing are  the  officers  of  the  company. 

Peter  Kop,  Captain; 

Francis  Otwell,  First  Lieutenant; 

David  V.  Buskirk,  Second  Lieutenant."  Journal,  August 
16. 

"Captain  Kop,  of  Monroe  county,  the  commander 
of  the  six-foot  grenadiers,  now  at  Camp  Morton,  is  putting 
his  company  of  magnificent  Hoosiers  through  their  daily 
drills  rigidly,  determined  to  have  the  most  soldier  like  corps 
in  the  regiment."     Sentinel,  August  18. 

"Col.  Colgrove's  regiment,  left  for  Washington 
unarmed,  because  he  refused  the  arms  tendered  him  by 
Governor  Morton."    Sentinel,  September  23. 

APPENDIX  F 

THE  VAN  BUSKIRK,  OR  BUSKIRK  FAMILY. 

The  family  of  Captain  David  Van  Buskirk  presents  some 
interesting  features  in  the  matter  of  heredity  in  physical 
development,  and  especially  as  to  the  points  of  deviation 


426  Washington  County  Giants 

from  and  recurrence  to  type.  It  is  also  a  family  which 
presents  in  a  forcible  way  the  problem  of  stature  influences 
in  the  Second  Congressional  District  of  Indiana,  as  the 
ancestors  who  located  there  were  not  notably  tall.  Capt. 
Van  Buskirk  died  on  August  12,  1886,  on  the  family  farm, 
where  he  was  born,  near  Gosport;  and  the  fullest  account 
of  him  in  print  is  an  obituary  notice  published  in  The 
Republican  Progress,  of  Bloomington,  on  August  18,  1886. 
The  editor  of  the  paper  was  a  personal  friend,  and  the 
account  appears  to  be  accurate,  with  the  exception  of  a 
few  minor  errors.  As  original  material  it  is  worthy  of 
preservation,  and  is  therefore  reproduced  here,  as  follows: 

"DAVID  V.  BUSKIRK  DEAD 

"David  V.  Buskirk,  one  of  the  best  known  men  of  Mon- 
roe county,  died  at  his  home  in  Bean  Blossom  township, 
on  Thursday  afternoon,  last.  About  a  year  ago,  Mr.  Bus- 
kirk, who  was  an  extraordinarily  large  and  corpulent  man, 
became  alarmed  by  the  difficulty  he  experienced  in  breath- 
ing, and  fearing  danger  from  fatty  degeneration  of  the 
heart,  which  his  physicians  advised  him  was  threatened, 
he  begun  to  use  precautions  in  diet,  and  resorted  to  other 
means  to  reduce  his  abnormal  weight.  For  a  time  his  symp- 
toms and  condition  gave  promise  of  permanent  improve- 
ment, but  dropsy  was  finally  developed  and  he  begun  to 
grow  rapidly  worse  some  two  months  ago,  and  died  from 
blood  poisoning  brought  about  by  his  general  condition.  A 
number  of  members  of  the  various  Grand  Army  Posts,  and 
other  citizens,  attended  the  funeral  on  Friday-  afternoon, 
and  the  burial  took  place  on  the  farm,  in  the  family  burying 
ground.  Few  men  have  been  more  respected  and  honored 
than  'Big  Dave  Buskirk,'  as  he  was  generally  called,  and 


Washington   County  Giants  427 

few  men  have  been  more  richly  entitled  to  the  confidence 
of  his  fellows  by  reason  of  honesty,  true  friendship,  general 
morality  and  worth  of  character.  He  was  the  soul  of  honor 
and  integrity,  and  was  fully  appreciated  by  his  neighbors 
and  acquaintances.  The  following  with  reference  to 
deceased,  is  taken  from  the  'History  of  Monroe  county/ 
and  is  supposed  to  be  accurate : 

"David  Van  Buskirk,  farmer  and  stock  raiser,  was  born 
upon  the  farm  he  has  always  occupied,  November  (October) 
23,  1826,  and  was  the  eldest  of  ten  children  born  to  James 
and  Mariah  (Campbell)  Van  Buskirk,  natives  of  Ohio  and 
Tennessee,  and  of  German  (Dutch)  and  Scotch-Irish  de- 
scent respectively.  David  was  reared  on  a  farm,  was  fairly 
educated,  and  on  March  16,  1849,  married  Lucy  Ann, 
daughter  of  Isaac  and  Patience  (Stillwell)  Buskirk,  of  Ger- 
man (Dutch)  lineage.  Mr.  Van  Buskirk,  by  this  marriage 
had  six  children,  born  to  him:  D.  C,  J.  I.,  Cinthy  (Ridge), 
John,  Thomas  and  Getty.  He  lost  his  wife  March  16,  1866. 
He  was  next  married,  May  26,  1867,  to  Mrs.  Martha  Able, 
of  Monroe  county,  and  daughter  of  Madison  and  Sarah 
(Wilborn)  Stephenson.  They  had  born  to  them  two  chil- 
dren :  Michael  (deceased)  and  Mariah  Ann.  Mrs.  Van  B. 
died  February  22,  1873,  and  our  subject  took  for  his  third 
wife,  October  26,  1874,  Mary  Able,  sister  of  the  second  wife. 
He  enlisted  in  July,  1861,  in  Company  F,  Twenty-seventh 
Indiana  Infantry,  under  Capt.  Peter  Clapp  (Kopp)  and  Col. 
Silas  Colgrove.  He  was  engaged  first  in  the  first  battle  of 
Winchester,  where  he  was  taken  prisoner,  being  confined 
for  about  three  months.  He  was  finally  sent  to  Annapolis, 
Md.,  exchanged  and  next  took  part  in  the  battles  of  Chan- 
cellorsville  and  Gettysburg,  besides  numerous  skirmishes. 
He  went  out  as  Second   Lieutenant,   but  his  captain  was 


428  Washington  County  Giants 

killed  during  his  imprisonment,  and  he  received  an  appoint- 
ment as  First  Lieutenant,  and  after  the  battle  of  Antietam, 
made  Captain.  In  the  fall  of  1862  his  command  was  trans- 
ferred to  General  Thomas'  division,  and  on  April  26,  1864, 
he  resigned  on  account  of  disability,  and  returned  to  farm- 
ing. In  1866-68,  he  was  elected  county  treasurer  of  Monroe 
county,  on  the  Republican  ticket,  but  was  defeated  in  a 
struggle  for  State  treasurer  in  1876.  He  had  not  since  made 
any  attempt  to  secure  office.  Mr.  Van  Buskirk  owned  450 
acres  of  land  on  White  River  bottom,  highly  cultivated, 
well  stocked,  and  which  had  the  addition  of  a  fine  residence, 
out  buildings  and  orchard,  and  was  one  of  our  oldest 
settlers,  having  always  lived  here.  He  had  provided  hand- 
somely for  all  his  children,  and  had  always  taken  great 
interest  in  their  education,  having  given  them  all  courses 
at  college.  He  enjoyed  good  health  until  he  left  the  army, 
since  which  time  he  had  been  affected  with  rheumatism. 
Mr.  Van  Buskirk  was  the  largest  and  tallest  man  in  the 
county,  and  one  of  the  largest  in  the  State.  He  weighed 
390  pounds,  and  stood  six  feet  ten  inches  in  his  stockings. 
He  was  a  Republican,  and  very  benevolent.  Mr.  Van  B.'s 
grandfather,  Isaac  Van  Buskirk,  was  a  soldier  of  the  Revo- 
lution, and  his  uncle,  John  Van  Buskirk,  served  in  the  war 
of  1812,  having  been  wounded  at  the  battle  of  Tippecanoe. 
Isaac,  son  of  John  Van  Buskirk,  served  in  the  Mexican  war, 
and  in  the  late  rebellion.  He  was  killed  at  the  battle  of 
Chancellorsville,  at  the  time  being  a  lieutenant.  The  wives 
of  the  above  mentioned  soldiers  are  all  sleeping  peacefully 
in  the  family  graveyard  on  David  Van  Buskirk's  place.  This 
burying  ground  is  located  on  a  hill  east  of  the  house,  and 
from  the  spot  you  may  command  a  view  of  the  entire 
country." 


Washington   County  Giants  429 

The  family  tradition  is  that  the  original  American  ances- 
tors were  two  Van  Boskerk  brothers  who  came  over  from 
Holland,  in  their  own  ship,  to  New  Amsterdam.  The  ship 
was  ballasted  with  brick,  with  which  they  erected  the  first 
brick  house  on  Manhattan  Island.  They  were  unquestion- 
ably an  old  Knickerbocker  family,  as  may  be  seen  from 
mention  of  them  in  the  various  publications  of  the  old 
Dutch  records  of  New  York. 

The  original  Indiana  ancestors  were  two  brothers,  Isaac 
and  Michael,  both  Revolutionary  soldiers.  It  is  said  that 
the  reason  why  part  of  the  family  dropped  the  "Van"  was 
that  Michael's  land  warrant  was  made  out  without  it;  and, 
as  it  would  have  been  necessary  to  go  back  to  Pittsburg  to 
have  it  corrected,  he  decided  that  it  would  be  simpler  to 
change  his  name.  However,  the  same  change  has  been  made 
by  most  of  the  descendants  of  Isaac,  also.  Captain  David 
did  not  use  it,  but  used  "V."  as  a  middle  initial. 

The  Revolutionary  Isaac  served  in  the  "Virginia  Guards," 
and  his  record,  and  those  of  three  succeeding  generations  of 
soldiers,  are  on  their  tombstones  at  Gosport.  He  came  to 
Indiana  from  West  Virginia  in  1805,  and  first  located  near 
Campbellsburg,  in  Washington  county,  removing  thence  to 
the  farm  near  Gosport,  which  has  since  been  known  as  the 
family  home.  He  was  about  six  feet  tall,  and  rather  slender 
in  build.  He  had  eight  sons  and  four  daughters.  Of  his 
sons,  the  descendants  of  three  present  some  noteworthy 
features. 

Perhaps  the  descendants  of  his  son  Abram  are  most  wide- 
ly known  in  Indiana,  on  account  of  political  prominence. 
Abram  had  four  sons,  viz :  John  B. ;  Judge  Samuel,  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  Indiana;  Judge  George  A.,  of  Blooming- 
ton;  and  Judge  Edward  C,  of  Indianapolis.    None  of  these 


430  Washington  County  Giants 

were  tall  men  except  George  A.,  who  was  over  six  feet,  and 
quite  heavy.  But  George  Buskirk,  of  Indianapolis,  a  son  of 
John  B.,  who  is  five  feet  nine  inches  in  height,  has  a  son, 
Fred  G.  who  is  six  feet  one,  and  a  grandson,  fourteen  years 
of  age,  who  is  taller  than  his  grandfather,  and  weighs  132 
pounds.  Judge  Thomas  Buskirk,  of  Paoli,  another  son  of 
John  B.,  who  is  five  feet  seven,  has  a  son,  Horace  K.,  who 
is  six  feet;  and  a  grandson,  Thomas  B.,  Jr.,  who  is  six  feet 
one,  at  nineteen  years  of  age. 

Another  son  of  the  Revolutionary  Isaac,  was  John,  who 
was  severely  wounded  at  the  battle  of  Tippecanoe.  It  is 
stated  that  "he  was  speared  through,  and  they  pulled  a  silk 
handkerchief  through  the  wound  to  cleanse  it."  He  recov- 
ered, but  the  wound  eventually  caused  his  death.  He  was 
the  father  of  two  Union  soldiers,  who  served  in  Company  F, 
of  the  Twenty-seventh  Indiana  regiment,  whose  pictures 
are  reproduced  herewith.  Lieutenant  Isaac  Buskirk  was 
familiarly  known  as  "Blue  Ike,"  on  account  of  a  blue  birth- 
mark on  his  cheek,  and  to  distinguish  him  from  several 
other  Isaacs.  Sergeant  John  Buskirk  was  familiarly  known 
as  "Sandy."  Both  of  these  brothers  were  over  six  feet  tall, 
and  of  rugged  build. 

The  most  notable  of  the  sons  of  the  Revolutionary  Isaac, 
in  connection  with  the  question  of  stature,  was  James.  He 
was  six  feet  one,  and  quite  fleshy.  He  married  Maria  Camp- 
bell, of  an  Ohio  family  who  were  all  tall.  Of  their  chil- 
dren, David  V.  was  six  feet  ten  and  one-half  inches,  in  his 
stockings;  Joseph,  now  living  at  Moscow,  Idaho,  is  six  feet 
four;  James,  now  at  the  Soldiers  Home,  at  Danville,  Illinois, 
is  six  feet  two;  Isaac,  who  died  during  the  civil  war,  and 
three  daughters,  Jerusha,  Cynthia  and  Mary,  were  all  about 
six  feet. 


Washington   County  Giants  431 

Capt.  David  V.,  of  this  family,  was  born  on  the  family 
farm,  near  Gosport,  and  grew  up  there.  He  married  his 
cousin,  Lucy  V.  Buskirk,  who  was  a  small  woman,  weighing 
about  130  pounds.  They  had  four  sons  and  two  daughters 
who  are  now  living,  as  follows :  David  C.,  now  seventy-one 
years  of  age,  and  living  at  Long  Beach,  California,  is  six 
feet,  two;  Isaac,  living  at  Gosport,  is  six  feet  five;  Thomas 
(Judge),  living  at  Bloomfield,  is  six  feet  two;  John,  living 
at  Ben  Davis,  is  six  feet  one,  and  the  two  girls :  Cynthia, 
(Mrs.  John  T.  R.  Ridge,  of  Gosport),  and  Gettysburg, 
teacher  at  the  girl's  school  at  Clermont,  are  about  six   feet. 

David  V.  Buskirk  was  very  strong  and  active  as  well  as 
unusually  tall.  His  ordinary  weight  was  about  385  pounds. 
It  is  said  that  after  his  boys  were  grown  he  could  life  two  of 
them  at  arm's  length.  His  oldest  boy,  David  C,  was  nick- 
named "Scroggy,"  and  on  his  twenty-first  birthday,  his 
father  said :  "Scroggy,  the  day  I  was  twenty-one,  I  laid  my 
father  on  his  back  on  the  barn  floor."  Scroggy  thought  it 
was  possible  that  he  could  duplicate  the  record;  and  his 
father  observed  that  he  was  rather  stiff  with  rheumatism 
since  the  war,  but  would  give  him  a  trial.  When  they 
clinched,  Scroggy  was  lifted  up  and  laid  on  the  floor  like  a 
child. 

In  his  youth,  he  was  a  great  wrestler.  On  one  occasion 
he  was  flat-boating  to  New  Orleans,  and  they  tied  up  for 
the  night  on  the  Tennessee  shore.  One  of  the  boatmen, 
named  Davis,  who  was  himself  a  noted  wrestler,  went 
ashore,  and  announced  that  they  had  a  man  aboard  who 
could  throw  any  man  in  Tennessee.  Somebody  said  to  send 
for  "Big  Eph,"  and  shortly  a  very  powerful  negro  appeared. 
He  sized  up  Buskirk,  and  said :  "Say  when  you're  ready." 
Buskirk  said  "ready,"  and  in  a  trice  the  negro  clinched  him 


432  Washington  County  Giants 

and  had  him  down.  Buskirk  got  up,  and  said :  "Now  you 
say  when  you're  ready. "  When  they  clinched  he  avoided 
the  negro's  trick  throw,  and  after  a  warm  struggle  threw 
the  negro  for  the  second  and  third  falls.  This  was  the  only 
time  he  was  ever  thrown. 

One  of  the  popular  tests  of  strength  in  early  times  was 
lifting  with  a  handspike.  A  handspike  was  put  under  a 
log  that  was  too  heavy  for  two  men  to  lift,  projecting 
equally  on  both  sides.  Wrhen  the  contestants  lifted  at  the 
two  ends,  the  necessary  result  was  that  the  stronger  pulled 
up  his  end,  and  forced  his  opponent  to  let  go.  David  V. 
Buskirk  was  never  defeated  at  this.  After  the  war,  there 
was  a  very  powerful  negro,  named  Tom  Travis,  employed  at 
the  saw-mill  on  the  Buskirk  place,  who  had  outlifted  every- 
body in  the  vicinity.  One  day  he  told  Captain  Buskirk 
that  he  was  sorry  he  had  not  known  him  before  he  was 
crippled  by  rheumatism,  as  he  would  have  liked  to  lift 
against  him.  The  captain  replied  that  he  could  not  bend 
over  to  lift  from  the  ground,  but  that  he  would  give  him  a 
trial  with  a  log  that  was  high  enough  above  the  ground  to 
avoid  the  need  of  bending.  The  test  was  made  in  that  way, 
and  Travis  was  able  to  stand  the  strain  for  only  a  few 
seconds  before  he  was  forced  to  abandon  his  hold. 

Captain  Buskirk's  death  was  caused  by  dropsy,  which  as 
usual  increased  his  normal  size.  It  is  stated  that  at  his  fu- 
neral it  was  necessary  to  enlarge  the  door  of  the  house  to 
get  the  coffin  in  and  out;  and  that  there  were  six  horses 
to  the  hearse — this  being  explained  by  the  statement  that 
the  roads  were  bad.  That  condition  would  make  the  pre- 
caution reasonable,  for  when  the  roads  in  that  vicinity  are 
bad,  they  are  very,  very  bad. 


Washington   County  Giants  433 

APPENDIX  G. 

Spanish-American  War  Statistics 

Measurements  of  5,768  Indiana  troops,  Spanish-Am.  war. 
(At  time  of  enlistment) 

Nativity  No.  6  ft.  Average  Height 

Indiana    4,410  142  5  ft.     7.70  in. 

Ohio     401  8  5  7.52 

Kentucky  and  Tennessee   136  3  5  7.47 

111.,   Mich.,  Wise,   Minn 295  11  5  7.97 

Other    States    344  10  5  7-8o 

Foreign   born    182  5  5  7.52 

Totals    5,768  179  5  7-67 

Note.  The  official  published  "Record  of  Indiana  Volun- 
teers in  the  Spanish-American  War"  tabulates  7,421  men, 
but  without  their  measurements.  In  the  muster-rolls  there 
do  not  appear  any  measurements  for  the  Signal  Corps,  the 
Engineer  Company,  and  the  Colored  Companies,  which  pre- 
sumably accounts  for  the  total  of  only  5,768  measurements. 

Tabulation    of    One    Hundred    and    Fifty-seventh    Indiana 
Spanish-American  War. 

Nativity  No.           6  ft.  Average  Height 

Indiana 

Staff   &c 15  o  5  ft.     7-75  in. 

Company    A 68  4  5  8.41 

Company  B 66  3  5  7.89 

Company    C 81  1  5  7.42 

Company    D 83  o  5  7.39 

Company    E 63  1  5  7.87 

Company   F 98  6  5  8.23 

Company   G 69  o  5  6.83 

Company    H 76  1  5  7.49 

Company  1 65  o  5  7.28 

Company   K 65  2  5  7.43 

Company    L 88  5  5  8.05 

Company   M 80  6  5  7.85 

Totals    917  29  5  7.69 


434 


Washington  County  Giants 


Ohio  126  5  5  7.67 

Kentucky  and  Tennessee    4  o  5  6.81 

Mich.,   Wise,   111.,   Minn 71  4  5  8.33 

Other   States    69  2  5  7.00 

Foreign  born   43  1  5  6.68 

Regt.   Totals    1,230  36  5  7.65 

Notes.  Exceptional  stature,  Ongle  A.  Moritz,  Co.  B,  6  ft.  sV^  in-* 
age  18,  born  at  Fort  Wayne,  Ind. 

Company  F  are  all  recorded  as  born  at  South  Bend — absurd,  of 
course. 

One     Hundred     and     Fifty-eighth     Regiment,      Spanish- 
American  War. 


Nativity                                                 No.  6  ft.  Average   Height 

Indiana 

Staff   &c 22  o  5  ft.    8.44  in. 

Company   A 61  2  5  8.42 

Company    B 69  3  5  7.52 

Company    C 66  1  5  7.32 

Company   D 66  1  5  7.70 

Company    E 69  o  5  7-35 

Company    F 65  3  5  7.97 

Company    G 71  3  5  7.35 

Company  H 59  2  5  8.21 

Company   1 67  3  5  7.66 

Company    K 72  1  5  7.80 

Company  L 63  3  5  7.49 

Company  M 66  1  5  7.61 

Ind.  totals    816  23  5  7.71 

Ohio    59  2  5  7.27 

Kentucky  and  Tennessee   21  o  5  6.88 

111.,  Mich.,  Wise.  Minn 41  2  5  7.63 

Other   States    59  3  5  7-70 

Foreign  born   17  1  5  8.72 

Regt.  totals   1,013  31  5  7.68 

One  Hundred  and  Fifty-ninth  Regiment,   Spanish-American  War. 


Washington  County  Giants  435 

Nativity  No. 

Indiana. 

Staff   &c 24 

Company    A 59 

Company    B 57 

Company    C 67 

Company   D 76 

Company    E 56 

Company  F 63 

Company    G 74 

Company   H 72 

Company    1 68 

Company   K 79 

Company    L 59 

Company   M 53 

Ind.   totals    807 

Ohio     22 

Kentucky  and  Tennessee    50 

111.,  Mich.,  Wise,  Minn    69 

Other  States   51 

Foreign    born    20 

Regt.   totals    1,019  32  5  7.66 

One   Hundred   and   Sixtieth   Regiment,   Spanish-American 

War. 

Nativity  No.  6  ft.        Average  Height 

Indiana. 

Staff   &c 17 

Company   A 56 

Company    B 66 

Company    C 74 

Company    D jt, 

Company    E 58 

Company    F 74 

Company    G 72 

Company    H 68 

Company  I y^ 

Company   K 61 

Company   L 54 

Company  M 66 

Ind.  totals    812  23  5  7.48 


ft. 

Average 

Height 

I 

5  ft. 

8.2     in. 

3 

5 

7.20 

2 

5 

7.82 

5 

5 

776 

0 

5 

7.26 

0 

5 

7.04 

1 

5 

7.60 

2 

5 

7.60 

4 

5 

8.39 

2 

5 

742 

3 

5 

7-52 

2 

5 

770 

3 

5 

7.00 

58 

5 

7.67 

0 

5 

7.66 

1 

5 

7.20 

2 

5 

7.69 

0 

5 

7.87 

1 

5 

7.69 

0 

5  ft. 

8.60  in. 

0 

5 

7.85 

1 

5 

740 

9 

5 

8.57 

2 

5 

7.51 

3 

5 

747 

2 

5 

7-35 

1 

5 

7-97 

0 
1 

5 
5 

7.03 
6.08 

3 

5 

7.29 

1 
0 

5 
5 

7.13 
7.60 

0 

5 

6.40 

o 

5 

7.64 

o 

5 

7.29 

0 

5 

76.73 

436  Washington  County  Giants 

Ohio    83  2  5  7.27 

Kentucky  and   Tennessee    5 

111.,   Mich.,  Wise,   Minn 32 

Other   States    61 

Foreign    born    28 

Regt.   totals    1,021  25  5  7.43 

One  Hundred  and  Sixty-first  Regiment,  Spanish-American 

War 

Nativity  No.  6  ft.  Average  Height 

Indiana. 

Staff    &c 8  o  5  ft.    7.60  in. 

Company   A 15  1  5  7.50 

Company  B 82  2  5  7.33 

Company    C 86  3  5  7.74 

Company   D 83  6  5  7.93 

Company    E yy  2  5  7.34 

111.,  Mich.,  Wise,  Minn 74  1  5  7.97 

Company    F 72  1  5  8.00 

Company  G 74  2  5  7.74 

Company   H 83  3  5  8.18 

Company   1 76  3  5  7.74 

Company    K 91  4  5  7.85 

Company    L 61  2  5  7.80 

Company  M 76  4  5  8.29 

Ind.   totals    884  33  5  7.80 

Ohio     92  3  5  7.48 

Kentucky  and  Tennessee    56  2  5  8.07 

Other  States    82  5  5  7.74 

Foreign   born    61  2  5  8.3 

Regt.  totals   1,249  46  5  7-83 

Twenty-seventh  Artillery,  Spanish-American  War. 

Nativity  No.  6  ft.  Average  Height 

Indiana. 

Staff   &c 25  2  5  ft.    8.80  in. 

Men    69  2  5  y.yy 

Ohio    8  o  5  7.94 

111.,    Mich.,   Wis.,    Minn 6  2  5  9.90 

Kentucky    and    Tennessee    o  o 


Washington   County  Giants  437 

Other  States    14               o  5           6.67 

Foreign    born    3                o  5           7-66 

Battery  totals    125                6  5           7.96 

Twenty-eighth  Artillery,  Spanish-American  War. 

Nativity  No.  6  ft.        Average  Height 

Indiana. 

Staff    &c 17                o  5  ft.    8.03  in. 

Men    63                2  5           8.77 

Ohio     11                1  5           8.59 

111.,  Mich.,  Wise.,  Minn 2               o  5           8.00 

Kentucky  and  Tennessee  o  o 

Other  States    8               o  5           7.59 

Foreign    born    10                o  5           5.92 

Battery  totals    in                3  5           8.29 

WORLD   WAR  APPENDIX   "H" 

World  War  Statistics 

Table.     Mean  Stature  by  States  of  Soldiers  at  Demobiliza- 
tion (1919) 

State                                                               No.  of  Men  Mean'  Stature 

Measured  Inches 

United    States    102,304  67.72 

Alaska   13  69.43 

Mississippi     2,099  68.61 

Tennessee    2,807  68.61 

Texas     4.361  68.60 

Alabama     1 ,930  68.57 

Georgia    3,397  68.51 

Oklahoma    2,310  68.44 

Nebraska     819  68.44 

Kansas    1,012  68.43 

Arkansas    2,576  68.41 

South  Dakota    / 416  68.39 

Oregon   1,069  68.38 

Washington    2,025  68.38 

Montana    264  68.35 

Arizona    130  68.33 

South  Carolina    828  68.32 


438  Washington  County  Giants 

Minnesota    1,950  68.31 

Iowa    1 ,609  68.28 

Idaho    164  68.26 

Florida     1,022  68.22 

North  Carolina   1,815  68.22 

West  Virginia  1,686  68.20 

Utah    104  68.19 

Wyoming-    80  68.19 

Kentucky    2,921  68.13 

Colorado    225  68.13 

Virginia    | 1,920  6S.or 

Missouri     2,836  67.98 

North  Dakota    358  67.96 

Nevada     18  67.91 

California    481  67.91 

Louisiana     2,070  67.86 

New   Mexico    229  67.82 

Wisconsin    2,675  67.79 

Indiana     3,944  67.73 

Illinois    6,687  67.65 

District  of  Columbia   231  67.60 

Ohio    7,076  67.48 

Michigan    3,715  67.32 

Delaware   300  67.26 

Maryland     1,138  67.20 

Vermont    446  67.19 

Maine     693  67.17 

Connecticut     996  67.08 

Pennsylvania    10,874  67.01 

New  Jersey 3, 180  66.93 

New   York    9,207  66.92 

New  Hampshire   413  66.80 

Massachusetts    4,782  66.77 

Rhode  Island  403  66.54 

Table.    Mean  Stature  by  States,  of  Recruits. 

States  Arranged  in  Order  of  Standing. 

State  No.  of  Men     Mean  Stature 

Measured  Inches 

United   States    873,038  67.49 

Texas    34531  68.40 

Oklahoma    19,429  68.28 

Mississippi     8,543  68.27 


Washington  County  Giants  439 

Tennessee    14,426  68.27 

Arkansas    10,111  68.20 

Kansas   9,57i  68.20 

Alaska    106  68.15 

Colorado    6,635  68.15 

North  Carolina   14,668  68.15 

Arizona    3,850  68.13 

Idaho    4,031  68.10 

Oregon     2,748  68.09 

Nebraska     10,774  68.08 

South  Dakota    3,892  68.05 

Iowa    19,537  68.04 

Minnesota     27,341  68.04 

Kentucky     15,502  68.02 

Alabama    15,088  68.01 

Montana    11 ,648  68.01 

Georgia    20,305  67.99 

Washington     13.316  67.96 

Missouri    24,964  67.95 

North  Dakota   6,444  67.92 

West  Virginia  12,367  67.87 

Utah    4,568  67.85 

Nevada    1,441  67.83 

Virginia    17,616  67.80 

Wyoming    1,927  67.79 

Indiana     23,194  67.75 

California    35,461  67.67 

South  Carolina    9,343  67.64 

District  of  Columbia  4,486  67.63 

Louisiana    12,356  67.60 

Wisconsin    18,433  67.60 

Florida   5,895  67.58 

New    Mexico   2,690  67.50 

Illinois    69,491  67.40 

Ohio    52,814  67.38 

Maine   3.315  67.28 

Michigan    41,872  67.23 

Delaware     1,891  67.19 

Vermont 2,077  67.12 

Maryland     9,192  67.08 

New  Hampshire   2,240  66.97 

New   Jersey    29,958  66.77 

Massachusetts    29,534  66.76 

New  York    87,818  66.72 

Pennsylvania    77, 186  66.72 

Connecticut  13,585  66.71 

Rhode  Island   *. 3,928  66.40 


440  Washington  County  Giants 

APPENDIX  "I" 

Extract  from  "Centennial  History  of  Washington  County, 
Indiana"  by  Warden  W.  Stevens  (Indianapolis,  1916),  pp. 
646-651. 

WASHINGTON  COUNTY  GIANTS 

In  early  times  Washington  county  was  celebrated  far 
and  wide  as  being  the  home  of  a  race  of  giants,  and  the 
wonderful  feats  of  strength  performed  by  some  of  these 
men  are  scarcely  believable.  There  were  a  number  of  stal- 
warts who  knew  not  how  strong  they  were  when  under 
any  kind  of  excitement  or  when  their  power  was  put  to  the 
test.  Among  the  men  who  made  up  the  class  of  giants 
that  gave  the  county  its  reputation  were  Abram  Stover, 
Thomas  Denney,  James  Uppinghouse,  James  Lee,  John 
Brough,  William  Cravens  and  others. 

It  was  generally  conceded  that  Stover  possessed  the 
greatest  strength  of  them  all  and  a  number  of  incidents 
have  been  handed  down  relative  to  his  gigantic  strength. 
He  was  a  man  of  commanding  appearance,  six  feet  high, 
with  a  huge  frame  and  sturdy  manhood.  He  never  vaunted 
about  the  superiority  of  his  muscular  powers,  was  never 
quarrelsome,  but  stood  up  for  his  rights  and  was  ever 
ready  to  meet  an  opponent  on  friendly  terms,  even  if  it 
came  to  a  fist  fight  to  settle  the  mooted  question.  In  fact, 
none  of  the  strong  men  of  early  days  were  prone  to  be 
quarrelsome.  Had  they  been  vicious  and  of  a  fighting 
disposition,  they  would  have  been  the  terror  of  the  country. 
When  a  young  man  showed  that  he  possessed  extraordinary 
strength  and  prowess,  he  always  had  his  champions  and 
backers  ready  to  pit  him  against  any  and  all  comers  of 
like  age  and  experience. 


Washington   County  Giants  441 

These  lists  were  usually  planned  for  muster  days  and 
4th  of  July  celebrations.  A  ring  was  formed  in  which  the 
contestants  met  and  woe  be  to  the  individual  who  dared  to 
interfere  any  way  in  the  contest,  other  than  to  urge  his 
favorite  to  supreme  effort,  or  prompt  him  what  to  do.  A 
public  gathering  of  any  kind  was  a  very  dull  affair  if  there 
were  not  a  number  of  fights,  wrestles  and  foot  races  to 
give  life  to  the  occasion. 

Thomas  Denney  was  always  considered  a  close  second 
to  Stover,  as  a  powerful  man,  and  many  of  his  champions 
were  ready  to  stake  their  money  on  him,  if  a  contest 
between  the  two  men  could  be  arranged.  The  two  men 
were  close  friends  and  could  not  be  induced  to  engage  in  a 
fist  and  skill  contest  publicly,  but  their  partisans  finally 
arranged  for  a  "whisky  barrel"  contest  during  a  public 
gathering  at  Salem.  The  test  was  to  be  taking  of  a  barrel 
of  whisky  by  the  chime,  raising  it  up  and  drinking  out  of  the 
bunghole.  Judges  were  selected  and  a  full  barrel  of  whisky 
was  rolled  out  in  the  street.  It  fell  to  Denney's  lot  to  make 
the  first  test.  After  "lifting"  the  barrel,  which  weighed 
about  four  hundred  pounds,  he  slowly  raised  it  up  and  took 
a  drink  out  of  the  bunghole.  Stover  walked  up  leisurely, 
laid  hold  of  the  barrel,  raised  it  up  easily,  took  the  drink 
and  set  it  down  without  a  jar.  There  was  then  some  dis- 
cussion about  the  decision,  each  side  claiming  the  victory, 
but  the  judges,  after  mature  deliberation,  gave  the  wager 
to  Stover,  because  he  had  made  a  clean  lift,  while  Denney 
had  rolled  the  barrel  part  of  the  way  up  against  his  legs. 

This  test  did  not  exactly  satisfy  Denney,  so,  meeting 
Stover  in  Salem  a  short  time  after  this  test  was  made,  he 
proposed  that  they  go  upstairs  into  an  empty  room,  on  the 
corner  of  lot  9,  north  side  of  the  square,  and  take  a  friendly 


442  Washington  County  Giants 

set-to,  in  order  that  the  matter  would  be  satisfactorily 
settled,  no  outsiders  to  be  admitted.  Stover  readily  con- 
sented, and  upstairs  they  went,  laid  off  their  coats  and 
began  their  knock-down  test.  After  sparring  a  bit,  Stover 
planted  one  of  his  mauls  squarely  on  the  side  of  Denney's 
head  and  down  he  went.  After  taking  a  few  breaths  they 
went  at  it  again,  when  Stover,  watching  his  opportunity, 
landed  a  heavy  blow  in  Denney's  face,  bringing  a  flow  of 
blood  and  sending  him  staggering  against  the  wall.  The 
merchant  below,  hearing  something  fall  heavily  upon  the 
floor  above,  proceeded  to  investigate  the  matter.  When  he 
reached  the  room  they  were  just  turning  for  their  coats, 
when  Denney  remarked,  "Where  shall  we  go  to  take  it." 
Often  after  that  time  their  partisans  would  endeavor  to  get 
up  a  fight  between  them,  but  the  response  of  each  would  be, 
"He  is  a  mighty  stout  man  and  we  prefer  to  be  friends." 

UPPINGHOUSE  PICKS  A  QUARREL  WITH  STOVER 

Upon  one  occasion  there  was  a  log-rolling  south  of  Salem 
and  Stover  went  early  to  lend  a  helping  hand.  James 
Uppinghouse  put  in  an  appearance  in  the  afternoon  and  had 
sought  an  opportunity,  for  some  time,  to  test  his  strength 
with  Stover.  Shortly  after  his  arrival  he  noised  it  around 
that  he  had  come  with  the  intention  of  whipping  Stover 
before  he  left  the  clearing  and  took  particular  pains  to 
exasperate  him  in  many  ways.  Finally,  some  one  told 
Stover  about  the  threat  Uppinghouse  had  made,  which  put 
him  on  his  guard.  The  never-failing  jug  was  passed  around 
frequently  and  it  wasn't  long  till  Uppinghouse  began  to 
feel  that  he  was  the  best  man  in  the  State,  and  again  di- 
rected his  insults  toward  Stover,  when  the  latter  said,  "I 
understand   you   have   come   here   to   give   me   a   licking." 


Washington  County  Giants  443 

Uppinghouse  said,  "That's  my  intention, "  to  which  Stover 
replied,  "Well,  here  we  go/  They  squared  off  for  the  fight, 
every  one  present  gathering  around  to  witness  the  contest. 
Uppinghous  made  a  few  unsuccessful  passes  at  Stover  who 
waited  for  a  favorable  opportunity,  when  he  landed  a  blow 
between  his  opponent's  eyes,  knocking  him  backward  and 
over  a  log  some  ten  feet  distant,  seemingly  a  dead  man. 
Bystanders  went  to  him  and  with  whisky  and  water  duly 
administered,  brought  him  to  his  senses  again,  when,  after 
being  assisted  to  his  feet,  he  said :  "Abe,  give  me  your  hand, 
I  don't  desire  any  further  test,  and  from  henceforth  I  am 
your  friend." 

James  Lee  was  much  of  a  man  and  in  all  his  bouts  with 
others  always  came  out  successfully.  He  was  over  six 
feet  tall,  weighed  over  two  hundred  pounds  and  was  indeed 
a  very  wiry,  athletic  man.  He  finally  concluded  he  was  a 
match  for  Stover  and  upon  several  occasions  sought  a  set- 
to  with  Stover.  There  was  an  election  in  Salem  when  he 
finally  picked  a  quarrel  with  Stover,  who  became  quite 
enraged,  and  at  the  first  pass  he  downed  Lee  and  went  after 
him  with  fire  in  his  eyes,  but  a  half  dozen  men  laid  hold  ot 
him  and  finally  dragged  him  off  of  his  opponent  and  suc- 
ceeded in  quieting  him  down  a  bit,  when  Stover,  taking  a 
good  breath  said:  "Boys,  I  am  glad  you  came  to  Lee's 
rescue,  for  I  might  have  killed  him." 

Grocers  used  to  buy  all  their  sugar  in  large  hogheads, 
weighing  a  thousand  or  twelve  hundred  pounds.  One  had 
been  received  by  a  grocer  on  the  south  side  of  the  public 
square,  near  where  Stover  and  some  friends  were  seated  on 
a  bench  engaged  in  conversation.  A  young  man,  who  was 
one  of  the  bullies  of  the  town,  came  along  and  having  about 
three  good  drams  ahead,  saw  Stover  and  offered  to  bet  him 


444  Washington  County  Giants 

that  he  could  put  the  hogshead  of  sugar  on  end.  Stover 
remarked :  "Young  man,  I  never  bet,  but  that  is  a  pretty 
good  lift  for  you  or  any  other  common  man."  At  this  the 
young  fellow  seized  hold  of  the  hogshead  and  set  it  up- 
right, when,  slapping  his  fists  together,  he  swore  that  he 
"was  the  best  man  in  the  county,  young  or  old,  and  if  any 
man  didn't  believe  it,  let  him  try  it  on."  Stover  made  no 
reply,  which  emboldened  the  young  fellow  to  move  up 
closer  to  the  old  man  and  continue  his  braggadocio.  Stover 
rose  up  slowly,  doubled  up  his  monster  fists  and  said : 
"Young  man,  I  am  getting  a  little  past  my  prime,  perhaps, 
but  (taking  a  step  forward)  I  think  I  am  as  good  as  ever 
for  a  few  jerks."  Stover's  manner  and  appearance  were 
enough  for  the  young  blood,  and  reaching  out  his  hand 
towards  Stover  said :  "It's  my  treat,  come  on."  When 
asked  afterward  why  he  calmed  down  so  suddenly,  he  said : 
"When  I  saw  those  huge  fists  and  that  mighty  man  facing 
me,  I  saw  I  had  no  business  with  him  other  than  to  cultivate 
his  friendship  and  then  retire  in  good  order." 

COLONEL  STOVER  BESTS  HIS  SON-IN-LAW 

Colonel  Stover  had  a  son-in-law,  named  John  Brough, 
who  was  a  powerful  man  and  had  never  been  worsted  in 
any  of  his  athletic  contests  with  others.  He  was  so  con- 
fident of  his  superiority  over  his  fellows  that  he  even 
imagined  that  he  was  a  match  for  his  father-in-law.  They 
met  at  a  log-rolling  east  of  Salem  and  after  a  few  whiffs  at 
the  jug  he  bantered  Colonel  Stover  for  a  tussel  just  for  a 
little  fun.  Stover  told  him  to  make  a  "running  shoot"  at 
him  and  he'd  see  about  it.  Brough  slipped  back  a  few  feet 
and  came  at  the  colonel  like  a  catapult.  As  he  came  in 
reach  the  old  man  caught  him  by  his  trousers  and  about  the 


Washington   County  Giants  445 

neck,  raised  him  up   and  threw  him  back  over  his  head. 
Brough  landed  on  some  poles  and  broke  his  leg. 

Upon  one  occasion  a  muscular  fellow  who  clerked  in 
Booth's  store,  on  the  north  side  of  the  square,  made  the 
assertion  that  no  man  could  put  him  over  the  counter. 
Uppinghouse  accepted  the  challenge  and  essayed  the  task. 
A  long  tussel  ensued,  and  when  Uppinghouse  began  to  tire 
the  young  fellow  watched  his  opportunity  and  unexpectedly 
toppled  his  adversary  over  the  counter,  who  fell  with  a  thud 
that  jarred  the  whole  building.  The  young  man  then 
boasted  that  no  man  could  put  him  over,  not  excepting 
Stover.  The  colonel  happened  to  be  in  town  and  was 
hunted  up  and  told  that  a  fellow  wanted  to  see  him  at 
Booth's  corner.  A  large  crowd  followed  to  see  the  sport. 
Arriving  at  the  store,  Stover  was  told  what  had  happened 
and  of  the  banter  made  by  the  young  giant.  "You  think  T 
can't  put  you  over  the  counter,  do  you?"  asked  Stover.  "1 
know  you  can't,"  said  the  young  man.  Without  another 
word  Stover  stepped  up  to  the  young  fellow,  took  him  by 
one  leg  and  an  arm,  and  while  he  was  squirming  and  wrig- 
gling in  vain  endeavor  to  loosen  the  vise-like  grasp  of 
Stover,  he  was  easily  set  down  on  the  inside  of  the  counter 
and  then  lifted  back  again,  about  as  readily  as  a  ordinary 
person  would  handle  a  child. 

AN  INCIDENT  AT  THE  CONSTRUCTION  CAMP 

While  the  public  improvements  were  being  prosecuted 
between  Salem  and  the  Ohio  Falls,  there  were  some  power- 
ful men  engaged  in  work  from  time  to  time,  and  almost 
every  day  some  sort  of  strength  test  would  come  off.  A 
fellow  named  Short  proved  to  be  the  giant  of  all  the  gangs 
and  he  was  frequently  complimented  on  his  great  size  and 


446  Washington  County  Giants 

muscular  powers.  To  such  praise  he  would  always  reply, 
"Why,  boys,  there  is  a  race  of  giants  up  in  Washington 
county  and  I  being  the  runt  and  unable  to  take  my  own  part, 
was  obliged  to  come  down  here  as  a  matter  of  self-preserva- 
tion." One  day,  while  all  hands  were  busy,  Short  saw 
Stover  coming  down  the  road  with  a  four-horse  team  of 
produce  for  the  market.  He  said  to  his  fellows,  "Now,  here 
comes  one  of  those  giants  I  was  telling  you  about,"  and  he 
went  out  and  greeted  the  colonel  heartily. 

Stover  was  then  introduced  to  the  boss  of  the  gang, 
when  work  was  suspended  and  all  adjourned  to  a  nearby 
grocery.  The  saloon  keeper  was  a  practical  pugilist  and 
had  heard  of  Colonel  Stover,  but  after  sizing  him  up, 
remarked,  "Short,  if  your  man  is  a  mountain  I  can  lick  him." 
And  without  further  warning  squared  himself  for  a  fight. 
Stover  said  he  had  not  come  there  for  trouble  and  instead 
of  dealing  the  fellow  a  blow  with  his  ponderous  fist,  he 
lutched  him  by  the  wrist,  pulled  him  forward,  took  hold  of 
his  shoulder  with  the  other  hand  and  was  about  to  twist  his 
opponent's  arm  out  of  its  socket,  when  the  doughty  chap 
bellowed  for  mercy.  Stover  let  him  go,  saying,  "That's  how 
I  could  break  your  arm  as  easy  as  I  could  a  chicken's  leg." 
The  fellow  then  set  up  the  drinks  to  the  crowd  and  told 
Stover  he  was  his  guest  for  a  week.  On  his  way  back  home 
the  colonel  was  halted  and  treated  like  a  lord.  He  boxed 
with  two  at  a  time,  lifting  weights  and  performed  many 
feats  of  strength  that  were  remarkable,  making  him  the 
hero  of  the  day. 

There  never  was  a  muster  in  the  whole  country  round 
that  Stover  did  not  attend.  He  was  promoted  finally  to  be 
colonel  of  a  regiment  of  the  militia  and  in  the  fall  of  1825 
was  appointed  brigadier-general  pro  tempore.    His  aid  was 


Washington  County  Giants  447 

Capt.  John  Duckworth,  a  man  no  less  portly  and  good- 
looking  than  himself.  In  gaudy  parade  costume  and  impos- 
ing equipage  and  mounted  on  fiery  steeds  these  men  rode 
before  the  regiment.  Colonel  Stover  made  a  speech  and 
then,  with  his  staff  officers,  retired  amid  the  plaudits  of  the 
admiring  throng.  Colonel  Stover  lived  on  a  farm,  located 
about  four  miles  southeast  of  Salem,  on  the  Greenville  road. 
He  lived  to  the  advanced  age  of  eighty-seven  years,  his 
death  occurring  on  April  6,  1875.  He  came  to  the  county 
from  Virginia  in  1815. 


